Sunlight on Seawater
by Tartarun
Summary: The story in which nobody, including Naruto, is sure if he is a man or a monster. Maybe more people should have paid attention to the fact the Death God laid the seal on Naruto's stomach. A different Naruto, a different Team 7, a different world.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Trust me I have no idea why I keep writing more new stories when I already have a pile of chapters piling up to finish. This fic is dark, gory and err consider yourself warned.**

The first time Iruka saw the child he gripped his kunai a little tighter, sweat formed in the palm of his hand. The first time his future classmates saw the child, they chorused welcome, accepting the shockingly scrawny blond boy without much of a protest.

Uzumaki smiled, and the image that superimposed the picture of a sweet boy smiling was one of black jagged teeth and red hot blood soaking into flesh. Then it was gone and Iruka's heart was racing far faster than he could remember in his memory. He was promised a sweet child! He had been told the boy and the monster were completely separate!

The _monster_ peering out of Uzumaki's eyes laughed at him in a rolling wicked defiance. There was a lazy surety in that gaze. A confidence and an arrogance that he would have called suicidal in any adult. And beneath that burning amusement was a river of molten _blistering_ rage. How could his students not see it?

"Sit down Naruto." Iruka managed and the boy's lips peeled back. No matter what he could not get the image of a predator licking his lips out of his minute as the boy nodded and took a seat. Iruka barely managed to stop him from taking a seat next to the Hyuuga heiress and directed him to one by the window instead.

"Aaah." He heard as he turned away, just pitched so that only Iruka would hear. "You're a cruel one aren't you sensei?"

Naruto gazed out of the window and Iruka turned back. What?

The boy pointed a long slender finger at the bunch of fluffy rabbits dozing in the sun.

"Drugs." Naruto smile was as thin and sharp as wire. "I _do_ wonder what lesson you plan on teaching with them sensei."

The boy could tell the rabbits had been drugged from such a distance and without examination? Iruka swallowed, mouth dry. If he could tell that much with a single look…what else was the _monster_ thinking? Naruto turned back to the rabbits with an idle grin.

….###################################################################...

The next time Iruka looked at those rabbits was during his lunch break just before he brought in his oldest class for their lesson. Naruto's class should have been out front playing and there was a lightness to his chest that he did not have to deal with the terrifying boy anymore that day.

At first he noted the grass was unusually red that year and admired the sheen of the liquid before his brain caught up in horrified shock.

The strings of flesh and bone couldn't even be called rabbits anymore.

Pieces of wet flesh were scattered in red glistening clumps and the grass was drenched in red and in the middle was a blond haired boy picking through the intestines of a corpse inspecting it like it was a mildly curious bauble.

Then the boy parted his jaws open slightly and _swallowed_ a piece without chewing. Iruka felt bile in the back of his throat at the sickening sight.

"Oh Kami." He whispered and the other instructors turned to look. He could hear the newest intern be violently sick behind him. Mizuki turned away with a disgusted cry and ran out to stop him (the fool.)

Iruka followed him. The boy was still his responsibility no matter how much his instincts were screaming at him to put a kunai through his head before it was too _late._

"Sensei." Naruto smiled, no Iruka could call it a smile when his teeth were stained and the sheer self-satisfaction the boy felt was like a beacon in his eyes. He sucked on a small piece of bone and rolled it between his teeth like a grotesque bit of candy.

" _Uzumaki_." Mizuki's voice was a whiplash. "Explain yourself."

The blond boy spat the bone at Mizuki.

"Lunch. Or did you forget dismissing us sensei?"

Mizuki crushed the bone in his hand, fingers tight and white knuckled. Iruka knew the tell-tale line of white hot fury in the line of his shoulders and the press of his knuckles against his thigh and he did not intervene.

The boy was a demon. He deserved anything he brought upon himself.

…#################################################################...

The Hokage came down himself. Iruka welcomed him in but he was quickly forgotten as a profound disappointment filled the old man's eyes aimed at the blond child.

"Naruto. There are things in polite society you do not do." The most powerful man in the village knelt so that he was on the same level as the boy dangling his legs off the edge of a chair (yes Iruka had given him that chair on purpose.) "They are unhygienic, sickening and twisted. I do not want you to walk those paths in your life."

And Iruka marvelled at the fact the Hokage talked to Naruto as if he was a normal boy and not a monster leashed by a fragile layer of human skin. Like the boy had just been brought up on mistaken morals and just needed support to bring back to human decency.

 _Teeth closing over red pulpy flesh. The rip of tendon from bone. And the arch of the boy's throat as he swallowed. Blood over his face, hands, skin. Blood everywhere._

Eating raw flesh was not a mistaken moral. There was something _broken_ behind those blue eyes.

"Oya-ji." Naruto bit out. "Why did they call you here over a student stealing lunch?"

The Hokage blinked. "Stealing lunch?"

Naruto sneered and cocked his head, some of the anger rising to the surface. "That's what we _do_ right. We're meant to lie and steal and my only fault was that I got caught. Why are _you here?_ "

The hatred expressed in that hiss nearly rocked Iruka back on his heels.

"Raw rabbit is not lunch Naruto." The Sandaime's voice was firm but the shock and dismay was evident. "The stealing is irrelevant."

"Of course it is." Now it's Naruto who looked confused. "Demons eat raw flesh after all. It's what we grow strong on. And you've never minded before."

Mizuki made a choking sound in his throat.

Iruka felt sick to his stomach.

And the Hokage closed his eyes to the ceiling as if in great pain.

"Who told you that Naruto?" His voice was but a whisper.

Naruto laughed at the old man's shock. "Everyone." And maybe that was innocent naivety Iruka could hear straining under the laughter.

…######################################################################...

Sasuke came back to class pale and broken. Even his most fervent fan girls stayed away in respect. Iruka had heard the tragedy of course and he resolved to be quite nice to the grief struck boy for the next few weeks. The Uchiha would all be missed.

"Yo." He heard a voice.

His head shot up. Naruto who had steadfastly ignored every attempt to make friends or conversation that year stood in front of Sasuke's seat. Mouth dry he remembered that the Kyuubi courted only death and destruction but something rooted him to his spot. Something grew and rooted through his feet and it kept him fixated on the scene he was sure would change history.

"Hate is a verb you know." The blond boy was smiling cruelly, mouth a sharp slash in his face.

Sasuke stirred. "I can hear yours. It _screams_ like nothing you've heard before…it's kind of pathetic you know. Like a child screaming for its mother to chase away the monster under its bed."

Iruka's heart skipped a beat and Sasuke's face flooded with black wrath.

"What do you know about my hatred?" The dark haired boy looked like he was just restraining himself from punching Naruto, eyes spitting fire.

"It's too weak." Naruto murmured eyes scanning Sasuke as if he was a particularly interesting specimen. "But you've come the closest so far." His fingers curled before touching Sasuke's face. "Would you like a show of the ledge you have to climb?"

The class was pin drop silent.

Sasuke smiled without mirth. "Show me then. I will _eclipse_ you."

"Good." Naruto threw his head back and laughed in triumph like Sasuke had said something irrevocably binding.

 _And there was a gaping sucking hole in the side of his neck. Bubbles shone beautifully (sickeningly) and death wrapped his claws around the slender column of the neck._

"The one who did this to me." Naruto's nails scraped on the fabric over his heart.

"I will paint the dawn with his blood. I will _twist_ his bones into the dust under my feet. I will eradicate him from our _history_. This I have sworn."

Very slowly the demon bent his head to match a wide eyed Sasuke stare for stare.

"Can you eclipse _me_?"

…###########################################################################...

The only indication Iruka got something was wrong was when one morning Sakura was crying, dry hiccupping heaving sobs into Ino's shirt and the smirk on the monster's face was the widest and wildest he had seen in a long time. He still didn't know why the Hokage didn't pull him out and execute him but if it was his wish that the demon got an education Iruka would not disobey no matter how much it cut at his insides.

Ino was shrieking at Naruto. Sakura was crying. Shikamaru was trying to calm down the situation. It really said something about the situation when the _Naras_ broke their nap and got involved. And _why_ was there reluctant approval on Sasuke's face?

He sent Naruto out immediately finding him the root of the commotion.

And slowly he coaxed an explanation out of Sakura.

"He told me I was a parasite!" The girl wailed. "He told me that no matter what team I'd get put on, I'd be the last one standing because I'd be standing on their corpses to stay out of the reality of the situation! It's not true sensei! It's _not!_ "

Ino took over attempting to calm the girl down. She was mature and calm, traits of her father shining through the childish immaturity she had displayed until that point.

Iruka was normally a calm man. But the distress of one of his students, along with the deliberately vicious words uttered by the _monster_ made his head thrum with a rage that clouded his vision.

He stormed out blood pulsing in anger. Naruto lounged on the wall, arms crossed having the nerve to look bored.

"How dare you." His voice was ugly. Iruka did not care. Naruto had crossed the line.

Naruto tilted his head and a strange expression crossed his face.

"Is it such a crime to call her the most beautiful parasite I've ever met?" The boy laughed hollowly and rubbed at his cheek with the back of his hand. "I don't _understand_ sensei."

And Naruto looked at him the same way Sakura looked at him for explanation on chakra theory. The same way Sasuke looked at him every time he mentioned extra practice. And he could feel his heart cinch in pity.

Sighing Iruka stooped to explain to the boy that empathy and sincerity were two different emotions.

…#########################################################################...

Mizuki's hand trembled in relief as Naruto was called for his test. Iruka could help but feel the same way. There was something terrifyingly unsettling about having blue eyes rake your spine every time you turned around to write on the board.

But he remembered with a mild dread that Naruto had failed to produce a clone all year and he gripped his pen tighter dismissing that voice of doom.

The blond boy entered and his eyes were hidden in the shadow of his hair.

"Naruto." Iruka's voice was clipped. "Please produce a bunshin for us."

"No."

The word sunk like a stone into Iruka's gut. Mizuki narrowed his eyes.

"What do you mean no Uzumaki? This determines whether you graduate or not."

Naruto's teeth were bared in defiance.

"No."

The boy raised his head and-

 _Jelly spilled down his face from a gaping socket. It shone and quite morbidly resembled tear tracks. Glistening. Wet. And the darkness in the boy's socket flooded his face, tainting his features into jagged glass-the lips moved but-_

But Iruka _could_ hear.

"I am the last gate." The boy was speaking with a heavy tone of finality. It made him sound older and wiser than any demon had any right to be. His fingers curled deliberately at his temple.

"I will not create more gates and compromise the safety of this village."

Iruka reeled mentally. He was reminded of the conversation with the Hokage where the man had reassured him Naruto was not a security threat. Had he misjudged the boy all along? Was he struggling under the weight of the demon's sins screaming alone? Duty, responsibility, maturity. For the first time the malicious amusement was _not there._

"Give me any task you like." Naruto continued firmly. "I will even repeat the year. But I will _not_ create a clone."

The blond boy clasped his hands in front of him and bows in such a manner Iruka could not fault his dignity or the fact that the boy looked oddly noble.

Naruto Uzumaki was a headache he was not prepared for in the slightest. He needed alcohol and lots of it to figure out if he had been treating a victim unfairly and unforgivably for the past year. He would not forgive himself if he had.

He sighed and overrode Mizuki's silent glares.

"Then give us a demonstration of chakra that you feel is appropriate for your situation." Iruka conceded.

Naruto shrugged and before any of the two instructors realised what he was up to, the boy bit his finger off.

Even Mizuki could sit there silently. Both men leapt over their desk concern for a _student_ overriding their confusion and disgust at a monster.

Naruto spat the severed finger at their feet and held up the regenerating stump. Flesh and bone were sprouting like a miniature tower in red and white and Iruka was transfixed. Seconds later Naruto flexed his completely healed hand and Mizuki sat down hard on the floor.

What did someone say to that?

Iruka wanted to scream at his walls. He wanted to weep and laugh at the state of their resident monster. The monster who hadn't hesitated to bite his finger off to protect the village.

"Congratulations Genin Uzumaki." His voice was strangled. "Feel free to collect a headband from the desk."

..###############################################################...

" _Tell me, what is the colour of time?"_

The first time Kakashi had met his sensei's son he hadn't expected the toddler to peer up at him and ask the weirdest question he'd ever heard.

He had never given an answer he remembered and it popped into his head when he swung open the door to greet his new team that he really should have an answer for an eight year old question by now.

He did expect a brooding Uchiha, a fan girl kunoichi and whatever the eerie child had grown into. Instead he saw a thin blond boy with the coldest and brightest eyes he had ever seen; a dark haired boy keeping both a respectful and defiant eye on the former and a bright jagged hatred in his kunoichi's eyes. None of their eyes matched his profiles.

Well his eyes weren't even his own anymore. They matched well as a team.

Kakashi smiled and sidestepped the kunai trap deciding to be a bit more serious than planned.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, I know who all of you are. You know who all of you are. I don't care what you like or dislike or what your dreams are, I don't think you particularly care about mine. So I'll cut to the point."

All three were looking at him now and Kakashi hid a grin.

"I won't take you on as genin unless you can pass my test." He warned once. "I do have the authority and am willing to use it. Training Ground 7 at six tomorrow and oh, don't eat breakfast. Ja ne!"

….############################################################...

The Chunin ran up to him as Kakashi was leaving. He recognised the scar across the nose at once and profiled Umino Iruka from when he had to memorise all personnel in the village. The little wary flick of the Chunin's eye towards the closed door did not go unnoticed. Kakashi let the chunin speak first as his curiosity was piqued, _no one_ willingly approached him when they were of a lower rank.

Instead the man held out a chunk of flesh, he recognised it as a finger of course and with a mild curiosity he noted that the tear was jagged. Why was the Chunin offering him a finger?

"It belongs to Naruto." Iruka told him as if he was telling him the weather and not that the body part he carried belonged to his potential genin. "He's _mad_ Hatake-san. I don't know what to make of him but-" Iruka shrugged and deposited the finger in Kakashi's palm.

"Don't send him back." And there was a peculiar yearning and desperation in that voice that Kakashi could not miss for the life of him.

Kakashi stared sadly at the appendage in his palm, he had heard of the legendary healing ability of the Jinchuuriki of course but to think the boy actually lost parts of him so young? If Kakashi took him on he'd have to fix that as soon as possible.

For the first time since his sensei's son was born Kakashi went home and read his file fighting his own heartbreak at the possibilities he had abandoned.

….#########################################################...

"Kill me."

Was all that Kakashi offered to Naruto. "Kill me before I kill you and I will consider you my finest student."

Sakura and Sasuke were not there yet, both of them were there an hour before the time set by Kakashi and he had known the blond boy would be there.

"Use any way you like." Kakashi grinned under his mask. "I _will_ stop you. And I warn you now, I will only strike once, another will not be needed."

Naruto tilted his head to the side and Kakashi saw in the wrenching clarity of the moment what had terrified the chunin so much.

There was too much rage bottled up in that boy and it leaked through his eyes like a dripping faucet. But Kakashi was _Jonin._

He was not fazed.

Something flashed in those blue eyes.

 _Half of Naruto's skull was caved in. Blood and bits decorated the side of his face. His lips were torn off and he was laughing grotesquely. He would have been unrecognisable if not for the blond hair matted in brain fluid._

Kakashi stopped the kunai headed for his throat by grasping Naruto's wrist and squeezing hard enough to make the wrist break. He hadn't meant to do that and he felt a brief spike of regret. For all that the boy was the Kyuubi host his body was still human and more fragile than most.

"Tell your little pet that that trick won't work on me." Kakashi's eye was very, very cold. "I have seen hell and know it far more intimately than you."

Naruto bared his teeth fiercely and the genjutsu was dispelled.

"Memories." He hissed and Kakashi felt his whole self-lurch. The blond boy spun in Kakashi's hold, breaking his wrist further so that his feet skimmed the top of the Jonin's head. Kakashi threw him far away and he could plainly hear the body breaking further.

The boy had no consideration for his physical health; he abused the Kyuubi's legendary healing power to the absolute extent possible. Kakashi was torn between highly appreciative and exasperated.

"Oh." Naruto himself sounded quite exasperated. "It broke again." His wrist cracked into place as Kakashi kicked his own formidable sensory ability into play. A foul, seething chakra settled around the blond boy's wrist like a set of teeth and _sunk_ in.

"Everything breaks." The boy seemed almost to talk to himself mournfully.

And suddenly Kakashi was very uncertain about the Fox God being sealed in such a fragile body, a prison _shouldn't_ break so easily.

…###############################################################...

Naruto had stopped after the first onset which had surprised Kakashi slightly. Instead the boy seemed content to sit there and _stare._

"Why do you apply that genjutsu?" Kakashi asked after fifty minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"It does seem like one doesn't it?"

The frozen smile sent a minute chill down Kakashi's spine. Seemed like a genjutsu? So it wasn't one?

The white haired man indulged his growing curiosity and let Obito's eye swirl out.

Beat.

"That's not possible."

"What a pretty colour." Naruto answered slightly dreamily ignoring Kakashi's shock altogether. "Did you know that red comes from the blood vessels in your eye bursting and pooling in the cornea? I tested that once." He tilts his head back mouth tilting into a slash. "Think Sasuke will get desperate enough to let me try again?"

"No experimenting on your teammates." Kakashi blocked off that route quickly before it grew dangerous. "Or on any civilian or ally of Konoha…Naruto…how are you alive?"

Naruto frowned, the faintest crease flickering between his eyebrows before it disappeared.

"You weren't meant to look at that."

He hit himself hard on the solar plexus with the heel of his palm.

 _And Kakashi could detect Naruto's heartbeat for the first time._

"I told you." Naruto's voice was dismissive. His face was not. "Everything breaks."

'Everything' seemed to include Kakashi's long unused and ignored heart. This was Minato-sensei's _son._ He wasn't meant to walk around in glass like bones. He wasn't meant to be used to having his heart stop in him and be perfectly ok with restarting it himself when he _remembered._ He wasn't _meant_ to be like this.

…..################################################################...

The Bell test was a dismal failure.

Well he really hadn't expected anything else.

Why was there so much hatred in his team? It was positively unhealthy.

Sakura snarled and swiped at Naruto keeping him at a constant distance. Sasuke went out of his way to avoid either of his team mates and Naruto…had just sat there on the grass from when he and Kakashi had been talking watching the white haired man with mocking eyes not moving a single inch.

It was the single worst case of teamwork he had seen ever and he was semi sure Naruto only did his bit to anger him and cloud his vision.

Then there was the constant wary looks Sasuke and Sakura kept looking Naruto when they thought he wasn't looking. The calculation in the dark haired boy's gaze gave Kakashi pause and so did the hidden contemplation in Sakura's.

"Hate is a verb." Naruto smiled at him lazily. "It's not a state of singular being. A person can do several verbs at the same time sensei." He tilted his head and laughed softly as _every single person_ looked away. When Kakashi looked again the look in Naruto's eyes was undecipherable and so very dark.

"You all fail." Kakashi's words resound like a bell and the relief on two of his genin's faces further sow doubt into his heart.

….###########################################################...

Sakura knew that she was giving up her dream to be with Sasuke and she kicked herself for it. But under any circumstances she was not agreeing to share a team with Uzumaki because she knew a team had to stick together and be closer than family and…she refused to do that to Uzumaki. After the parasite comment she would _not_ forgive him, could not trust him past her own prejudices and Sakura was clever enough to know that such a team was headed for disaster.

The seething hatred locked away in her stirred. Something Uzumaki had done had given her access to that river and she was frightened. Perhaps she would go nag Sasuke, perhaps the hate would go away.

"You shouldn't you know." Uzumaki sat in the tree behind her idly kicking his legs in the breeze. Sakura started, she hadn't even heard him! The look on his face turned absolutely malicious. "You kiss him and he'll eat the lips right off your face. _Right off._ And you'll feel every moment as he chews and chews until there's a skull grinning where your foolish face used to be."

What did the stupid boy know? He only _lied and lied_ and laughed at other people's suffering. Sasuke appreciated strong women! The baka probably didn't know any better and wanted some attention himself. Yes…Sakura wasn't going to play his game!

Uzumaki's sneer flickered. "Don't do that." He snapped a real heat rising up behind his words. He dropped from his tree eyes wild and blazing and fists clenched. Sakura took a step back at the intensity.

"If you push your hatred towards me away again." Uzumaki snarled and in her shock Sakura noticed that his teeth were sharper, longer and undeniably blood stained. Instead of a boy's mouth Uzumaki had a wolf's. "I'll really give you a reason to hate me." A bubbling growl forced its way up the boy's throat like he was throwing up glass shards.

Sakura let herself drift.

She punched the infuriating boy straight across the face, head snapping to the side. No…

His neck cracked and she screamed in horror but stood her ground as a broken neck bone pierced a vein and she was _covered._

She was screaming. Uzumaki was dying. No he was laughing.

A wild reckless laughter like an eagle soaring in a storm.

Uzumaki was dying. And the dying boy tilted his head to face her again, neck free of any injuries and smiled.

A fierce rage overtook her. He had frightened her so _badly._ And he had the audacity to laugh at her! Monster!

She wasn't even aware she had done it. But a fresh bruise blossomed high on Uzumaki's cheek and faded away.

"Come on." Uzumaki taunted her. "That was pathetic. How are you going to fight for Sasuke when you can't even take down an unresisting opponent?"

Every word he spoke was a serrated blade on the last few threads of her control.

A line of blood opened up high on his cheek bisecting the bruise.

"I'm warning you Uzumaki." Sakura's voice was ugly. "Back off."

The line of blood trickled down his cheek and all the infuriating boy did was lick the drop once it reached his mouth.

Sakura _shrieked._ Was nothing she did ever going to faze the monster?! She was going. To. Make. The. Other. Boy. Pay. Attention.

The blond boy spread his arms in a parody of a hug. The look in his eyes would haunt her nightmares for years to come; a cold vicious amusement at what he had caused and a certainty that chilled her to the bone.

She broke his ribs. She stamped on his stomach and felt the organs burst. She shook him by the neck until his neck was a band of purple and blue. Nothing she did worked and he just looked at her like she was a child he was humouring.

"Look at me!" She was barely aware she was shrieking as she slammed the blond's boy's head into a rock splattering the grass red.

"Don't look at me like that!" Her fist broke his nose and her thumbs found his eyes. Her nails ripped down his stomach and it was _hot_ and pulpy and the sound of her haggard breathing and shrieking was the only thing in the training ground.

"You don't need that." Sakura hissed viciously straddling Uzumaki and leaning over his face, her hair acting as curtains to the rest of the world. She flung something squishy away and finally, _finally_ the boy arched minutely. Her hand grabbed something hot and pulsing and she squeezed until it burst, hot acid and blood spilling over her hand. And both she and he were screaming now.

She was still screaming with pain. With horror. With sheer terror and shock at what she had done when his arms came around her and she was hugged to Uzumaki's chest firmly. _She hadn't meant to do that! She hadn't used nearly enough force!_

"If you're trying to get me bored, you're failing miserably Sakura. As punishment let's take this up a notch. Disembowelling one's stomach tends to do that to a hunter." He smiled against her hair and just held her as her screams turned to sobs.

"What…are you?" Sakura gasped feeling the mortal wounds close up against her hands.

He hummed.

"No wait." She interrupted herself. "Forget that. What are we to you?"

Ah. She could see his wolf teeth again.

"You." He spoke warmly. "Are my second disciple." At that he released her and got to his feet leaving Sakura in a pool of body fluids. "Sasuke is my first. You can't have him Sakura, I'll kill anyone who tries to take what is _mine_ away."

"You're a monster." Sakura felt too calm for the situation. "I'm not anyone's anything."

Uzumaki laughed at her. "So are you now. If I hadn't been _me…_ well you'd be wanted for murder wouldn't you Sa-ku-ra."

…..#################################################################...

The ANBU came for her that night. She blinked her eyes as the blindfold was removed into a set of bright lights. Shadowy shapes moved around the edge of her vision and she leant her head back huffing in fear and inappropriate amusement as her situation proved Uzumaki wrong. She _was_ wanted for failed manslaughter.

"Student Haruno." Came a very old and familiar voice.

"Hokage-sama." Sakura giggled. "I would bow but ah I'm a bit tied up at the minute."

There was a pregnant pause before a flurry of incredulous muttering started.

Sakura felt her amusement wither to an ice cold resolve.

"Why am I here?" She asked sharply. Even a few hours ago she would have stuttered and pandered to the elite Nin all looking at her with varying amounts of disbelief.

"You tried to murder a military asset of Konoha." The Hokage's voice was very old and cold Sakura thought. "You tried to kill my grandson. Such crimes cannot be forgiven."

There was something wrong with that image. She hadn't dreamed she would ever be capable of violence like that and she wasn't sure if she should be grateful or furious that the blond boy had drawn her potential out of her.

 _A flash of wicked blue eyes out of a shadowed face. Uzumaki tilted his hat over his face and laughed until the sound was raw and ugly._

Funny. He laughed a lot but he never seemed happy.

Sakura was jolted out of her thoughts by the Hokage snapping his fingers irritably.

"Nothing can kill him." Sakura told the Hokage flatly. Even she had picked that up. Even if she had to argue until she was blue to the face she would not waver from that belief.

"You certainly tried."

Sakura smiled minutely. "I failed didn't I? Naruto is alive."

She had seen the colour of his insides. That intimacy qualified her to use his first name. And there was the tiniest hope beyond hope that the boy would hear. Hear her using his name when he had never given her permission to and come.

The Hokage kept talking and her hope kept shrinking. It had been a stupid idea, people didn't have powers like that. She had no way out of this and bitterly she acknowledged it was a fair decision. She _had_ tried to kill Naruto. But she _didn't_ want to die.

"You have some nerve old man." Drawled a familiar and unwelcome voice. Sakura's neck nearly snapped trying to see past the bright light. What was Naruto doing here? How did he know?! Had her prayer worked?

"Naruto." The Hokage breathed. "How did you-"

The sound of footsteps.

"She used my name." And Sakura felt a cold finger tap on her forehead and within her the hope in her chest exploded. "You drove her into such a corner that she had no choice but to rely on me."

His voice grew colder and colder, very uncharacteristic for the laughing boy.

And she didn't understand. She did not understand the simple anger that burned in the boy not three feet from her. Did not understand the hand of concern pushing her hair back over her forehead.

 _Why_ had he come? _Why_ was he saving _Sakura_?

"Justice must be served Naruto." The Hokage told the boy. "I will see her punished for what she tried to do to you."

The laugh took them all by surprise.

"You have forced her to use my _name_." Naruto laughed in genuine mirth. "Don't you understand?" Sakura thought she could see Naruto shake his head. "She _hates_ me." He stated like it was a simple truth. "The shame of resorting to _me._ To have to trust me to _save_ her is punishment enough."

Sakura closed her eyes.

That wasn't true. That…wasn't…true?

"Get out." Naruto snapped to the other shinobi and there is something predatory curling under the curt words. His fingers brushed over the bond securing Sakura's neck and tugged slightly.

"No." The Hokage's voice was as hard as stone.

"Don't interfere Jiji. I won't back down ever so you'll have to beat me into agreeing with you." Sakura thought the normal smile is sharper and thinner than what she's ever seen before. "As you know, I'm tough. _Very_ tough. Can you imagine the damage you'll have to inflict on me before I bend?"

Incredibly the Hokage flinched, the answer being apparently yes. And _he backed down._

Sakura could barely believe her ears or her eyes as the most powerful man in the village exited the room after reluctantly giving her a pardon.

She called out for Naruto to release her but he just stared at the door eyes grave. He flicked his blue eyes down and something heavy hit her in the stomach metaphorically. Something was wrong.

"Naruto." Sakura was wary now. "What are you doing?"

The boy stopped by the side of her restraints and gazed down calmly as if he was surveying an experiment.

"Let me go from here! You got permission." Sakura pulled at her bonds, the sense of _wrongness_ weighing even heavier on her heart.

Naruto smiled and opened his mouth in a creak of teeth and jaw joints. Long curved teeth shone in the light of the interrogation room. Sakura stilled looking at that terrible mouth.

"Fear is a funny thing. You needn't be afraid Sakura; but tell your instincts that."

Sakura's heart nearly burst as he leant down and gently fixed his teeth on either side of her neck, mouth impossibly opening wide enough to fit her neck in between. No, no, no, _no._ She couldn't die here! She had made such a mistake trusting the mad monster for more than a second and now she would be paying the price.

"Relax." Naruto murmured breath ghosting like the edge of a kunai over her throat. "I'm just making it easier for me to protect you."

 _No!_

The snap of jaws in the silent room sounded like a bell toll and Sakura's head fell back eyes lifeless and glazed.

…##################################################################...

She awoke to darkness in a bed too strange for her to be comfortable. She felt her neck almost feverishly, maybe she had imagined the awful teeth clamping down and the taste of iron in the back of her throat as she grew colder and colder.

"Fool!" A sharp voice barked at her from the dark room. She blinked and to her surprise Sasuke came vaguely into view shadows draped over his frame and face as he glared at her legs crossed in a chair.

"You let him capture you." And Sasuke's eyes were hot and furious enough to set oil afire. "Are you lost in the head Haruno? _What_ were you thinking?!" The sound of the chair falling back was loud and Sasuke paced angrily up and down the room.

"I died." Sakura confirmed numbly hands around her throat.

"Yes!" Sasuke snarled throwing the curtains to the window open. "You died! I found your corpse on my doorstep and then _miraculously_ you started breathing again!" Sighing he breathed out and fixed a tired look on her. Her hand was shaking Sakura noted distantly as she carefully unwrapped them from her throat.

Sasuke had treated her in his own house. He had taken care of her while she had been hovering in between life and death. This gratitude went beyond any crush she may have had on him in the past.

She slid out of the bed ignoring Sasuke's harsh bark of 'get back in that bed before I break your legs to make you stay there'. She touched her head to the ground and abruptly Sasuke cut himself off.

When he spoke again he sounded rather gruff. "Pick yourself off the floor."

"You're a target too." Sakura told him still kneeling. "He called you his first disciple."

A dark brooding silence filled the room.

"Pick yourself off the floor." Sasuke repeated stepping by her and snapping the door shut behind him. "Kakashi is our best bet." He spoke suddenly. "He's strong enough to keep _him_ in check." His fist creaked as his knuckles paled.

"He _failed_ us." Sakura pointed out.

"He failed us _yesterday_." Sasuke didn't bat an eyelash. "And I bet something happened in between Kakashi and Naruto-" He raised an eyebrow at Sakura shrieking at him not to use the name.

"That's how he tracked me down." Sakura elaborated nervously.

"Fine." Sasuke sighed. "Something happened between Kakashi and Uzumaki. I have a feeling he's going to be pestering the Jonin too. It's dangerous, by getting close to the protector we're getting too close to the demon."

Both of them shared a glance. It was _terrifying_ that she and him could be caught up in Naruto's web and tangled and tangled until they danced to his tune. Why _them_ anyway? The boy could not die. Terror turned the liquid in her stomach to acid, what did they do to someone who didn't die? How did they stop someone who was immortal? And it was _very clear_ Naruto danced to his own tune.

Sasuke's mouth flattened into a thin line.

"Sleeping pill by your head. You might not want to sleep without them for a few days."

 **Sooo…what did you think? Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Have the second chapter of this thing. I wrote it in the middle of exams and I think I put a bit too much of my frustration in this.**

Kakashi thought deeply lying in his apartment that night.

He hadn't given them the second part of the bell test as a test in itself. He had left before he could see the chunin's face crumble in shock and slight trepidation as the three returned to the Academy.

He really didn't want that team.

So next morning when he woke up and flitted to the memorial stone for his daily activity he was stunned to the core to see three students there ready and waiting.

Naruto held up the crossbow and the yarn twanged. Kakashi caught it out of the air and used it to pin Sakura to a tree by her dress as she tried to attack him from behind. Then there was _fire_ and Kakashi had to sigh because this was _boring_ and very soon Sasuke was out for the count too.

"Are you going to attack again?" He asked Naruto who gave him a _look._

Well it was a far better performance than yesterday and he could actually see a hint of team work in it now. Incredible. Too bad it was too late. He flicked a glance at Sakura to release her and froze. The scarf around her neck had slipped and he ripped it off feeling slightly regretful at the slight yelp.

Deep, livid red scars curved down both sides of her neck in the clear impression of teeth. Kakashi stared at it in disbelief. That had _not_ been there yesterday and he met Sakura's glaring eyes with a silent question. When did the girl have her throat ripped out exactly?

Sasuke stirred and his eyes alighted on Sakura's scars and to Kakashi's diminishing surprise he looked away without the slightest shred of concern or surprise. Sakura wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck and folded her arms across her chest refusing to answer.

This trio was going to give him a headache.

….############################################################################...

It happened again the next day.

And the day after next.

For two weeks it continued with the three of them continuing to attack Kakashi as he went to pay his respects with more and more elaborate plans and teamwork. They had actually hit his standard for teamwork in fresh genin a few days ago and by now he was just being curious at what they would come up with next.

Naruto tried to kill him. Sakura watched them all with jaded slightly mistrustful eyes. Sasuke had yet to speak a word not for his jutsus. If he kicked their bodies into getting bruises upon bruises by forcing them to compensate and testing them personally it was because he was curious at their potential. He did _not_ have a team. It was _not_ going to change.

He spied Sasuke blowing fire until he choked up ash in great hacking coughs. He saw Sakura run laps and throw kunai until her fingers bled and blisters formed. He saw Naruto almost lose himself in the Kyuubi's foul chakra night after night always _just_ stopping short of being engulfed.

One day Asuma asked him why Kakashi never ordered D ranks for his team and Kakashi could not snap back fast enough that they were _not_ his team. The look of surprise on Asuma's face was actually quite insulting.

Tired of being mistaken as a Jonin sensei (And because he had a mission that day) the next morning he dragged all of them back to the Academy and left them there. For the first time in weeks Kakashi saw the flicker of something monstrous over Naruto's face and the sharp edged desperation in the other two's faces told him that they had noticed it too. Kakashi paused by the doorway listening to the Chunin chew out the three for always being late and wasting a Jonin's time.

For some reason they kept seeking him out. _After_ he had made it perfectly clear he was not going to accept them as a team. He could understand why Naruto hunted him down but the other two as well?

They were terrified. And there was something in Kakashi's throat at the fact that two kids he had met for less than an hour trusted him enough to run to him for protection against their third team mate. There was a dark murmur in the back of his mind that Naruto was the one responsible for Sakura's scar and his fist clenched into a ball.

Kakashi cursed his sentimental heart (when did he get so soft) and exhaled. Snatching a pen and a scroll from his pocket he scribbled down an instruction and threw it to Sasuke.

If they could do what he asked of them then he would reconsider his decision.

….###########################################################...

Sasuke was not one to run away from challenges. But he was one to keep a wary eye on them and bomb the hell out of them when they were distracted. That was plan number 2. Plan number 1 was guaranteed a fail because Naruto's interest was never going to wane due to that man snapping one night.

Problem was Naruto never seemed to be distracted. Oh he looked it certainly, whistling a small sombre tune into the distance or fiddling with something from his pocket but every time Sasuke checked him out as a threat Naruto made sure to lock eyes with him _each and every time._ The little smirk would play on his lips and the vicious satisfaction in his eyes served to strengthen Sasuke's resolve to not get caught next time.

He waited until Sakura went to get some food and met Naruto's eyes squarely.

Smiling slightly Naruto slid into a seated position.

"What point was there in killing her?" Sasuke asked abruptly. He had got the third worst shock in his life when he had literally and ungracefully tripped over his temporary teammate's corpse that night. If he hadn't left the house to go dump trash she might have frozen to death.

Naruto stared then sighed as if the question bored him. "Did you know she ripped my stomach apart?" He spoke half admiringly. "That kind of viciousness can't be lost. So I kept it alive by tying her to me in a way that she can never forgive me for." This time the smile was edged with slight sadness.

"You called her beautiful once." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"I am cultivating that beauty." Naruto tilted his head back looking utterly relaxed. "Do you not see how it's tearing her apart?" His voice grew cruel. "The urge to be grateful to me because I saved her and the urge to hate me for what I did to her is _warring_ within her."

"What did you do to her?" Sasuke pressed voice hard. What he had done to Sakura could be done to him too and he did not fancy that idea in the least.

Naruto laughed at him. "Would you like to die as well and find out?"

Sasuke shut up.

…..##########################################################...

Sasuke stared in horror from his perch.

Sakura let out a small choking sound as Naruto fell over fifty feet. He hit the ground in a splatter of bones and blood and Sasuke had to turn away in order not to be sick. Then he remembered what Sakura had told him and cracked an eye towards the sickening sight.

The blond boy shook his head and the shards of his skull were sent flying from where they nested in his hair. With a hand he pushed his white ribs back into his body breaking them further in pieces. This couldn't be real.

Sasuke hadn't quite believed Naruto couldn't die until the point he saw the deed himself. Then his gaze turned to the tree.

Black rotting bark marked the progress Naruto had made up the tree trunk. It oozed a clear fluid and stank of something awful. Some of them caved inwards and flies were already being attracted. The branch Naruto had stood a tiny bit too long on was hanging off in a nearly vertical position rot spreading over the joint.

What was _wrong_ with Naruto?!

Naruto's serene smile countered the blistering rage in his eyes. Very deliberately and very slowly he pressed his palm to the magnificent tree trunk and from the point of contact black rot spiralled outwards.

"Don't kill the tree!" Sakura called out in disbelief. "It's not the tree's fault you can't do this."

Naruto's eyes blazed through the fifty feet separating them and Sakura reeled back in her perch as if struck.

The great tree creaked and groaned piteously as its foundation completely rotted through and with a final creak it toppled sideways and hit the ground in a thunderous smash. Sasuke watched the rot turn the tree into a pile of black goo and then watched the boy glare at the next tree with enough force to incinerate it.

This was really bad. If Naruto didn't get this down Kakashi wouldn't take them on and their only protection against Naruto would be gone.

A foul heavy chakra suddenly polluted the air and Sasuke gagged. It tasted rancid and spoilt and he hurriedly closed his mouth.

"Oh." Came a voice from the air ten feet from him. "You're quite sensitive to that."

Disbelievingly Sasuke turned his head sideways. Naruto stood (floated) in mid-air grinning smugly.

 _Air didn't rot._

Naruto had turned the air under his feet solid instead of sticking to the tree trunk. Sasuke dragged his jaw back up, it was easy to forget that the boy really was a very _dangerous_ opponent. How long had it taken him to work out this issue again?

With a wicked smile Naruto touched the tree trunk below Sasuke with his toe. He immediately went on full alert as his own perch wobbled with the rot spreading.

That _sonofabitch._

Sasuke leapt out of his tree the very second it all went down in a shower of leaves and rot and bark. His hand caught on bark and he skidded down hand burning from friction as he tried to apply the technique so his hand wasn't blasted off. Twenty feet from the ground he managed it but the stop dislocated his shoulder and the pain caused him to lose the grip he had and he plummeted. He crashed into a laughing Naruto while a shrieking Sakura dropped out of the sky.

"Are you trying to kill him!?" Sakura screamed at Naruto. The blond boy's chuckles turned mirthless and he shoved Sasuke's shoulder back in place without a warning. Sasuke's own snarl got cut off partway.

Instead he grabbed Naruto's shirt and dragged him close. "If you _ever_ do that again." He whispered. "I will break every bone in your body and keep breaking them until you _beg_ for mercy. Is that clear?"

And it's only then he thought he may have made a mistake by reacting when the interest in those blue eyes turned absolutely gleeful. Sakura was there instantly to drag him away and the odd feeling of camaraderie he felt was tight against his ribs.

"Maybe death isn't such a big thing to you." Sakura's voice was trembling but strong despite that. "But we live once and die only once."

Sasuke would have missed it if he had blinked at that moment.

A flash of hot bitter regret and shame curdled those eyes. It was always Naruto's eyes doing the expressing even when he was laughing or frowning. He thought for a second that Naruto might actually apologise but Naruto closed his mouth into a grim line and stalked away eyes darker than anytime Sasuke could remember them being.

Maybe the blond boy really hadn't realised…

And that was the most chilling thought Sasuke's had ever since meeting Naruto.

…##############################################################...

"You look like them you know."

Sasuke threw a kunai on instinct at the unexpected voice. Naruto dropped from the window into Sasuke's house and ducked the kunai lazily.

"Like who?" His voice was sharp. "And get out Naruto, you're not welcome."

Amazingly the boy looked away imperially surveying the house with cool disinterested eyes. One slender finger pointed at Sasuke's hand which was wrapped in bandages.

"I came to fix that." The blond boy offered stiffly.

Sasuke laid the scroll he was studying down on the table. "I don't want your help, now answer my question and go away."

The blue eyes turned back to him. "Like your family of course." Naruto stated like it should have been obvious. Sasuke stiffened.

"I see why I was told not to come near here." Naruto murmured brushing his hand over the wooden wall. "The sheer _death_ in this area is dizzying."

Naruto could sense the dead? Sasuke's teeth hurt from being clamped together.

"Then." Naruto offered, "If you refuse my offer of medical aid, perhaps you'll appreciate this one more."

Sasuke sat bolt upright in his chair as a heavy corrosive chakra leaked into the air.

" _What_ are you doing?!"

He did _not_ want any of that unnatural happenings in his own home dammit.

The shadows in the corner of his house darkened out of the corner of his eye, when he turned to look at them they seemed normal but then the other shadowy corners started acting up. He had to keep blinking to keep a normal range of vision. There was a heavy musk in the air.

Like some wet and bloody predator was curling around the room and growling low enough to make the room shake. His heart was stammering in his chest and Sasuke backed away from Naruto. The boy himself was stock still and glaring at the ground with such intensity Sasuke thought he was trying to strip back the carpet.

His light flickered in static and abruptly went out.

His mouth went dry.

And there was the _screaming._

His house was filled with it. Women screaming for their children, men screaming for mercy and children screaming in pain and terror at such a pitch that Sasuke had to clamp hands over his ears.

" _Mercy! We swear we won't do it again!"_

" _My child! My lord…Please!"_

" _Mummyyy! It hurts!"_

Were those the voices of the dead? Had he really been living in a house with the dead _screaming_ for mercy for years? An irrational fear took hold of him but he stood his ground. This was _his_ house.

With am almighty crack the glass frames of the Uchiha in the shrine he kept shattered into brilliant pieces of glass edged in darkness.

"Stop it!" He howled at Naruto. "Whatever you're doing, stop it!"

A cold hand squeezed his chest. Now he was recognising some of the voices; the kind aunt who gave him sweets when his father wasn't looking, the man who gave him discounts on whatever he wanted to buy, the boy next door he had played with in the park once…Those were his family screaming for relief. Sasuke half screamed and half choked in a strangled gurgle which he would deny later at all costs.

"There." Naruto's voice was _so_ distant, like he was speaking to someone far away. There was a dissonant serenity on his face, a peace and a sense of belonging that felt warped and twisted by the time Sasuke interpreted it.

And his world narrowed to two voices calling for their son.

Sasuke broke down and cried for the first time in years reaching for his parent's voices.

…..#################################################################...

Sakura opened the door at the frantic banging intent on giving the person a piece of her mind.

Sasuke stormed in with a duffel bag, eyes haunted and slightly red. Sakura snapped her mouth together and let him pass.

"My house has a slight infestation problem." He called back and if his voice wavered slightly Sakura did not point it out. "I'm borrowing your floor for a bit." He stopped and faced Sakura slightly. "Has anyone ever died in your house?"

What an odd question.

She shook her head and the lines of tension around Sasuke's mouth relaxed slightly. With a nod he headed upstairs and she bounded after him to show where he could sleep.

"He's not human." Sasuke told her suddenly. There was a curious mix of contempt and grief warring in his voice as he sunk down by her bed post. His hands flexed slightly as if searching for something to do. " _Never_ invite him in Sakura. Never even say his name in your house. It gives him an opening to exploit."

Between two fingers he pulled Sakura's collar slightly to the side to reveal the livid scars. His gaze grew tight and Sakura left him in her room staring into the distance like he had seen a ghost.

…..##########################################################...

The next morning Naruto wasn't there.

Sakura stared at the patch Naruto usually waited for them with an unreadable smile and sharp eyes. She shared a look with Sasuke who seemed to be on the verge of suspicion and relief.

Finally she spoke. "If Kakashi gets back and Naruto's not here, we won't pass."

Folding his arms over his chest Sasuke grunted. She took that as agreement.

I don't know where he lives." He offered curtly.

It took them a while to track down where he lived. No one seemed to want to share any information on the enigmatic blond boy. Eventually they wrangled the information out of a rude eight year old with a scarf too big for him.

Sakura pushed the door open and it crumbled and sunk beneath her fingers as the wood succumbed to rot. Holding a sleeve to her to block out the smell she continued into the apartment. Sasuke silently closed the door behind them. They had found the apartment in an isolated part of Konoha with peeling paint and broken glass littering the streets. Not many people lived there due to the deteriorating conditions; Naruto must have had quite a lot of space to himself when he was a child. A dark part of her did mutter how many times child Naruto had died falling off edges as rickety fences gave way. How many times had the floor given way under his feet and he had broken his spine on the landing.

There was a sickly sweet smell in the apartment that wasn't present in the rest of the building. Sakura turned the corner to see flowers everywhere. Some were rotting, some were in fresh bloom, some were in desperate need of food but the water levels were consistent Sakura noted with a critical eye. It gave the rundown apartment a macabre feeling with the bright splashes of colour dotted in with the sweet smell of decay and flowers dying. They were everywhere, shoved in cupboards, in vases, clippings half-finished were sprawled across the main table and she could see the places where they had withered to husks and instead of throwing them out Naruto had just hidden them with more flowers.

There was a groan from the room adjoining. Sasuke slid past her and into the room as she set down the white tulips and followed.

Naruto looked awful.

Ironically he looked more like a corpse now than when he had actually died. His skin was white and drawn like wax over his bones. It had a blue white transparent sheen and sweat beaded his skin. His lips were dry and as red as dried spices and the contrast was startling against his face. He shivered and wrapped long twig like arms around his knees even though the room was boiling with all the windows closed. There was a flower crown on his head that had long been crushed.

Only his eyes were the same. No.

They were more.

The second they locked to the duo they _blazed_ with rage. His eyes shone out Naruto's face like a fire lit them from within and Sakura suspected he had a fever. The fury shown by those eyes _far_ surpassed anything he had shown them in the past.

"Get out." Naruto smiled and it was too terrible to look at directly. When they didn't listen he snarled ferociously and the bubbling growl caused Sakura to step back reminded of the wolf teeth.

Sasuke stepped forward instead.

"What happened?" He asked quietly taking in all the signs of sickness.

Naruto laughed without mirth. "Everything has a price Uchiha. Why don't you search through that hate infested brain of yours to find the answer hmm?" The cruelty and self-loathing in that tone cut deeper than any knife.

"Why did you do that then?" Sasuke asked calmly. "You must have known."

Gasps escaped Naruto as the strain of laughing and speaking hit him.

"Monstrous is not a verb." He gasped out. "But there are times I like to prove my nature wrong." He fingered the crushed remains of a daffodil.

"Is that the reason for all the flowers?" Sakura asked quietly waving a hand.

His lips peeled back. "Ah Sakura, anyone would go mad smelling nothing but death all day." He tossed the flower regally at their feet. "Now get out. I have entertained you enough."

Sasuke made a tiny motion at her. She nodded agreeing with him.

They hated the boy, well they didn't know what they felt towards the boy but this wasn't something they could ignore.

Sasuke gave a mirthless smile of his own and gestured around the disgusting apartment.

"Are you attached to anything?"

Naruto's forehead creased slightly.

Sakura raised his closet taking all the pairs of clothes she could hold. With her leg she kicked up the duffel bursting with ninja weapons and collected anything else Naruto used on a daily basis.

"Good." Sasuke told the blond boy before kneeling slightly to scoop the sick boy up in a carry, sheets, flowers and all. Naruto looked genuinely stunned, the fury dying down under the weight of his confusion.

"Struggle and I drop you." Sasuke told the frozen Naruto before sweeping out of the apartment. Sakura followed rolling her eyes. They were all mad.

…..############################################################...

The three of them watched the apartment burn in sadistic glee. It spat and crackled in great red tongues of flame. The heat was excruciating upon their skin and sweat rolled down their backs but Naruto kept trying to lean in closer to get closer to the warmth and so Sasuke had to abide even though he was clearly very uncomfortable.

Three ANBU dropped to try and put out the fire and Naruto's glare was enough to send them skittering away.

"You know, it's very nice of you to warm me up but you have just burned down my house." Naruto remarked dryly.

"Since you like the dead so much, you can go live with them." Sasuke muttered and didn't elaborate.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. That sounded like Sasuke planned to kill Naruto, but that didn't make sense. Sasuke knew better.

…..##################################################################...

Sasuke did know better.

And that niggling thought in the back of his mind which told him Naruto had been trying to help him needed to be silenced.

He dropped Naruto without much ceremony in one of the branch Uchiha house beds.

"You're inviting me in." Naruto sneered apparently not appreciating the gift. His eyes gained a faint wicked spark before losing it to contempt. "I told you, you hatred is too _weak._ "

"I despise you." Sasuke told Naruto calmly taking the things from Sakura and throwing them in a pile at the foot of the bed. "Fortunately for you, I can hate someone and pity them at the same time."

Naruto's face grew _feral_ like something snapped in him.

"I don't need your pity!" He roared teeth creaking into sharp points. And Sasuke knew he was seeing the monster that had killed Sakura.

" _There._ " Sasuke smirked. "You do react like humans sometimes. Good."

The look Naruto shot him made him fear slightly for his life for the first time since that night.

"Do you realise what you have done?" Naruto's laugh was ugly. "You have opened every single Uchiha door to me. I can go anywhere in this compound and you have no power over me here. _Big mistake Sasuke._ " He sing songed.

"Go where you like. Dead should keep company with the dead." Sasuke slammed the door shut just in time for several kunai to slam into the wood.

"Let's leave before he finds out he's been tricked." He muttered to Sakura who nodded. There was something elated in his chest. Naruto had weaknesses after all, it was very clear who had won this round between them.

"Why don't I give the guest room to you instead of the floor?" Sakura asked dryly. "I don't think you can come home for a very long time."

….###############################################################...

Kakashi turned up to the memorial stone expecting to see three determined faces.

Thin air greeted him.

Slightly disappointed he looked around just in case they were hiding and wanted to ambush him. Had they given up at the very end? Had he sped through his mission only to be let down by three children?

Then his keen eyes caught sight of two pairs of indentations in the grass.

They had come.

And left for some reason.

He knelt next to the marks and marked the way they had gone. Why only two? Where was the third? Had he been wrong about their motivations?

Dread slid down his spine.

 _Where_ was the third?

He checked the Academy.

The Chunin hadn't seen any of them.

He checked Naruto's house and found it a simmering pile of ashes. That was when his dread turned to outright fear.

By some luck he checked the house of the kunoichi next and found two of the genin there brooding at the table.

"Academy students shouldn't skip class." He lectured sternly dropping through a window.

"We've effectively declared a war between us and Uzumaki." Sakura told him flatly. "Either help us or go away. We don't have that much time."

Now this _was_ interesting.

It was the complete opposite of teamwork but he was starting to accept this trio wouldn't ever be normal.

"And how do you plan to win?" he asked slyly slipping into a seat, chin on the back of his hand.

Sasuke raised a finger. "We confuse him by being kind." With an eye roll he elaborated. "He'll confuse it with pity and hopefully he'll be disgusted enough to back off."

Kakashi did not miss Sakura running her hands over the indents of the teeth in her neck.

…..##########################################################...

Kakashi found Naruto cleaning gravestones. He was pale and shivering but behind him was a trail of neat and scrubbed clean gravestones.

The white haired man took a seat on one of the clean ones and Naruto spared him an irritated look.

It was a look which told Kakashi that if he made one patronising move the tenuous strand holding Naruto's temper together would snap.

"You talk to the dead." Kakashi started.

Naruto scoffed. "You _make_ the dead. Both of us interact with death on a daily basis, don't say it such a way that it seems mysterious or charming." His scrubbing nearly took the name clean off the stone.

"Your mother couldn't talk to the dead."

And silence fell across the graveyard.

"Your mother couldn't do quite a lot of the things you do."

Naruto shook off his stillness and smiled wistfully. "Is that so?" His smile turned sour. "That's quite cruel Kakashi, telling an orphan he doesn't measure up to his mother."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "That's not what I said."

"No, it's what you meant." Naruto finished flatly throwing the dirty rag down. "I can't measure up to her as a gate, I _know_."

"I think she'd be quite proud of you." Kakashi spoke honestly. Because despite everything Naruto had Kushina's way of bluntly saying what was on his mind and his father's gist of drawing people in even when they didn't want to.

Naruto snapped.

"Enough!" His voice cracked as a bucket flew at Kakashi. "I don't need to know what she would have thought of me! I _hate_ her!" Kakashi deflected the water and took a good look at the furious boy. It was when he was angry, he was most human.

"Why?" He asked calmly. "I don't think you mean that, really."

Naruto looked up at the sky darkening with rain.

"Because she was perfect." He admitted without shame. "The perfect Jinchuuriki, the perfect survivor, the perfect wife. The only thing she failed at was being a good mother."

Kakashi's heart turned to ice. Kushina had _died_ for this boy. What an _ungrateful brat!_

"She went and got herself pregnant!" The blond boy howled. "She _knew_ it was our blood that let us keep the Kyuubi trapped and she went and had a kid fully knowing that when she _died_ the duty would fall to her descendants to keep it caged!" Naruto gazed at Kakashi apparently run out of steam. "She died because of me." He whispered. "Because of me the seal weakened and it doomed both of us. So don't you dare tell me she'd be proud of me, not when I murdered her."

With a last ferocious glare Naruto snatched up his rag and returned to scrubbing the grave.

"You're wrong." Kakashi returned not unkindly and Naruto froze.

"It is perfectly possible to reseal Biju back into Jinchuuriki who had them ripped out. The fact it wasn't done meant that Kushina was dying of an injury even her Biju couldn't cure her from."

Naruto mouthed Kushina as Kakashi continued. "The Kyuubi murdered Kushina." He stated kindly. "That's the only thing it couldn't cure were the injuries it inflicted itself. So the duty fell to you, but believe me when I say she would have died for you a thousand times without ever regretting it."

The blond boy's face threatened to crumple. This was probably the first time anyone had ever given him a kind word about his parents, Kakashi knew the Hokage wouldn't have touched that subject with a ten foot pole.

Then it was gone, locked behind a mask of stone. And Kakashi cursed. He had lost the boy.

"I will never let it escape." And it resounded in the air between them like a vow. "I will die with it still sealed inside and deprive the world of the Kyuubi for at least a hundred years. It will be my last revenge to the village and to the beast itself. I will succeed where my mother failed." Naruto smiled coldly. "Are you going to stop me Kakashi?"

"I did tell you your mother would be proud of you." Kakashi murmured.

Naruto bared his teeth and growled once.

Remembering they were in a graveyard Kakashi shut up very quickly. He did not want to find out what else Naruto could do once properly motivated and at the heart of his power.

…..#################################################################...

Kakashi took them on.

Really what choice did he have? If he left them alone they would all shatter within the year out of paranoia and misplaced fear.

The most insulting thing was when he went to report that he was pulling Academy students out of the Academy as his Genin Team the Hokage merely stared and handed him a file which stated Kakashi had a team _weeks_ ago.

"Well you said you failed them but then trained them so I took a guess." The old man puffed on his pipe without remorse. The file got crushed in Kakashi's hand.

"You've been a good influence on them Kakashi." The Hokage continued.

"Hah?" Kakashi was genuinely surprised. He had done _nothing_ but beat them up for weeks.

"I haven't had a single report of Naruto eating anything raw." The Hokage beamed at Kakashi as if he'd done something incredible. "He's a good boy really."

Kakashi choked back the information about Sakura's scar and the reason why Sasuke was camping out at Sakura's.

"So do you want a D rank?" The Hokage gestured to the pile of D rank scrolls.

"Do _you_ want a massacre when they find out?" Kakashi asked pointedly. "Just give me a relatively safe C rank."

…##################################################################...

Kakashi didn't tell them of course. Where would be the enjoyment in that?

Sakura offered him a bento with a mischievous gleam in her eye. Sasuke took his and Naruto stared at his like Sakura had offered him a pile of shit.

"You like your meat rare don't you?" Sakura smiled sweetly and pushed the bento forwards. Naruto held out one elegant hand and accepted the bento box.

Quick as a striking snake he threw it away, the contents spilling out and mixing with the mud. Sakura's smile flickered.

"Where." Naruto asked softly. "Is the thrill of the hunt if you wring the neck of a chicken and cook it? Even with your large forehead and brain you can't figure something so simple out?"

Kakashi coughed and distracted the budding rise of tension.

"I have a mission later in the day." He remarked casually. "I expect you to continue with your Academy Studies while I'm gone. It's a wonder the Chunin even accepts you barely turn up every day. Oh and Naruto don't waste food."

Naruto shot him an utterly unimpressed look before pressing the tip of his finger to some of the spilled food. Under his touch it wilted and blackened into a small pile of decaying rice.

Sakura looked a bit sheepish, she had forgotten the fact that most organic things seemed to decay around Naruto, sometimes voluntarily sometimes involuntarily. It was the reason his clothes were so plastic and neon, they were the only thing that wouldn't rot.

Kakashi wasn't surprised Naruto didn't eat much especially if he had started to eat and ended up with a mouthful of rotting food.

"Actually." Kakashi tapped his lips. "How would you brats like to tag along? That teacher of yours seems quite useless at teaching you the necessary things, I could probably fix a lot of your mistakes."

"Iruka-sensei is a fantastic teacher!" Sakura snapped. Sasuke glared.

"Prove it." Kakashi smiled behind his mask lazily and stretched. "Oh this will be hilarious, a Jonin and three Academy Students. It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke."

Three pairs of coldly determined eyes flashed at him and Kakashi felt like laughing.

 **What did you think?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Well this is bad, I've nearly reached the end of my frustration driven writing and so you might have to wait until I get frustrated enough to write more dark stuff like this. (Sorry) but still enjoy this? Oh I just want to point out Naruto's powers are limited, he's not a God of death and life as people keep asking me about, just to clarify a point.**

"They all look like little brats." Tazuna declared. "Especially the scrawny one."

There was a sharp intake of breath.

Naruto smiled and Tazuna flinched back eyes wide. Kakashi did not doubt he had been treated to a full dose of Naruto's genjutsu and felt slightly sorry for the man.

"Oh did I hit the mark?" Naruto grinned. "Is that guilt I detect? You know you really shouldn't give so much away, imagine if someone hires us to kill you after we finish protecting you. Money _is_ everything Tazuna-san."

Tazuna went dead white. Still grinning Naruto hooked a finger around the sake bottle Tazuna was drinking and palmed it.

"Don't mind do you?" He asked cheerfully a wicked undertone belying his humour.

Ah… alcohol got better the more it decayed. No wonder Naruto was in a good mood. But he was not going to risk a drunk immortal child with an eerie connection to death. Kakashi took it firmly out of his hands and tucked it into his own pocket.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke asked wrapping bandages around his knuckles.

"Wave." Kakashi answered idly spinning half-truths to the two border Nin. Naruto lost his good humour in a millisecond and the air around him became heavy and dark.

"Wave?" The blond boy hissed, a hint of fang peered out behind his lips. "Of course it would be Wave." He muttered more to himself than anyone else then shook his head.

…..#############################################################...

Unfortunately for the two Chunin hoping to ambush them Team Kakashi had two _very_ paranoid Academy Students. Sakura spotted the puddle a mile off and Sasuke hit the centre with three kunai causing the puddle to turn bright red.

One of the Nin burst from the puddle in righteous fury and grief only for Naruto to snatch another bottle of sake from Tazuna and break the bottle in his face.

Glass sunk into the Nin's face and he screamed disfigured for life. Blood mixed with alcohol, the pain must have been excruciating. Without much of an expression the blond boy shoved the last glass shard he was holding through the Nin's eye popping it and straight into his brain. The grown man collapsed like a bridge falling.

The boy licked the blood and alcohol off his fingers and his too amused eyes found Tazuna's.

 _The entire right side of his face was just grinning bone. The left side grinned horribly wire drawing the lips into a bloody grotesque smile. Tendons and muscles flapped at the join and the left eye was surgically removed and shoved in between Naruto's teeth._

Tazuna vomited up his alcohol immediately. Naruto really was too good at those.

Kakashi hadn't even needed to do anything _and_ they had handled themselves better than actual genin. He must have been doing something right.

"Tell me everything or I let him loose." Kakashi said happily to Tazuna pointing at Naruto who obligingly peeled back his lips in a slasher smile.

Actually horrified a retching Tazuna confessed.

…..####################################################...

Kakashi's good humour evaporated the second Zabuza Momochi popped up like a bad surprise.

To his pleasant surprise it had been _Naruto_ who had promptly grabbed all of his fellow students and Tazuna before retreating to a safe distance.

"No!" He distantly heard Naruto snap at someone. "Are you an idiot, deal with the clone first!"

"Oh he's good." Momochi breathed having heard the same thing. "It hasn't even come out of hiding yet." He sent his great sword whistling over Kakashi's head as the white haired man abruptly ducked. "Speaking of which, they have no headbands. Did you really bring three Academy Students out for a joyride Copy Cat?"

Then the Missing Nin's face contorted into surprise under his mask.

Let me guess." Kakashi spoke dryly. "The girl spotted it and told the others. The dark haired one distracted it and the blond brutally killed it."

"Oh I _like_ that kid." Zabuza murmured eyes narrowing into gleeful slits. His muscles tensed up and Kakashi's bones jarred as he blocked a blow of the sword. "Don't mind do you copycat?"

With a huff of displaced air he was gone and Kakashi stumbled forward at the sudden loss of force.

"Naruto!" He roared spinning around.

Naruto heard and leapt back. Unfortunately that left Sakura in the line of fire.

Kakashi saw the blond boy's eyes open wide in horror and realisation as Momochi appeared not three feet from the kunoichi.

To her massive credit Sakura didn't scream, run or do anything foolish.

She merely drew her kunai and waited. Momochi inspected her bravery like he would inspect an interesting specimen of animal.

Then he swung his sword.

To _his_ credit Sasuke managed two lightning quick substitutions in the time it took the sword to reach Sakura. The bisected log fell into pieces.

Sakura's neck started bleeding and she pawed frantically at the blood.

Naruto looked beyond enraged.

And Kakashi's heart stopped-

Zabuza's sword took Naruto between the ribs and with enough force to bisect the brat. But amazingly it got stuck leaving only a fragile strand connecting both halves together.

Kakashi fooled himself to think that Naruto looked down in exasperation but that must be his head falling because Naruto was _dead. Dead_ and gone.

He had failed both his sensei and his student.

Then Naruto's hand came up and gripped the steel blade.

Zabuza's shock mirrored his own.

"Perhaps you don't understand what it means to have the Death God perform a seal."

And he sounded _so_ spiteful.

Sasuke sounded like a part of him died inside from that little cry he let out.

Naruto's grip on the sword bisecting him was slippery but he grasped it between both hands and impossibly he ripped it out of the side of his body. And this time Kakashi nearly retched at the sight of his student's chest half attached to his body before the miraculous healing ability kicked in.

Zabuza held up his sword with a roar falling back on his option of killing everything to cover his confusion but Naruto jabbed a finger at the blade a vindictive smile crossing his face.

The Missing Nin staggered back white in shock.

The legendary blade of Kiri was coated in rust and even as they watched flakes of the blade fell off until the sword was nothing more than a hilt and a pile of iron rust shavings. (He had grown stronger, he couldn't affect metals before. All of Naruto's kunai must have been absolutely useless now.)

Zabuza turned back to look at Naruto stunned speechless.

Naruto smiled innocently.

Those _utter brats had never mentioned a word of how Naruto could heal himself from mortal injuries!_ That would have stopped him from having his heart put through a torture rack.

Kakashi's Chidori would have taken Zabuza straight through the heart when senbon took Zabuza through the side of the neck and Kakashi very nearly floundered as his target abruptly collapsed then tensed further as a bone masked Kiri operative melted from the shadows.

"I thank you for making my kill easier." The operative bowed slightly revealing himself as a young boy about the age of his own team. "I have been seeking to kill the Devil Zabuza for a while now."

How convenient.

There was a huff of displaced air behind Kakashi and suddenly Naruto was _there._ Inches from the operative and understandably the foreign Nin jerked back caught unaware. Oh what was he doing now?

"How impolite." The blond boy tilted his head. "Stealing someone else's kill."

"I apologise." The operative nodded. "But I cannot allow an ex-Kiri Nin's body to fall to other village's operatives."

Kakashi was about to call Naruto off when he noticed the strange smile playing around his genin's mouth and decided to just let him roll.

"Then what about a hand?" Naruto asked softly. "His sword hand to be precise. Dead men don't need to hold swords." His fingers curled around Zabuza's wrist in a clear threat.

"I cannot let _any_ part of his body escape my possession." The Kiri Nin's voice could have frozen fire. "Unhand the corpse Konoha Nin."

Light gleamed dully off blood covered teeth as Naruto bared his in a hissing laugh.

And Kakashi must have been seeing things because one second Zabuza's hand was hanging limply in Naruto's grip then there was a spray of blood and a furious shriek as his _physically weakest and the most fragile student he had ever seen_ ripped off the appendage.

"Take it." Naruto tossed the hand at the furious Nin. The stump bled and dyed the soil of the battle field a brown red.

"Uzumaki!" Sakura hissed. "Stop desecrating the dead."

The operative stared at the hand as if Naruto had handed him a live bomb.

"That's all he is now." Naruto remarked callously dragging his fingers through a growing puddle of dirty blood. "Meat." His fingers dragged up the arm leaving red streaks until they settled under Zabuza's chin. "Shall I remove his head too Hunter Nin-san?"

There was a shriek of absolute rage and Naruto was sent blasting back by an ice spike. Kakashi moved on instinct catching his student before he broke anything.

 _Ice._

Yuki bloodline. There were no Yukis under Kiri's official ANBU as the war was not yet over.

He was Zabuza's accomplice… and Naruto had just ripped his partner's sword hand off. Kakashi grinned viciously under his mask. Even if Zabuza was alive, which was quite a big possibility, he would be the equivalent to a cripple.

Before any of them could react to the new threat the aghast Hunter Nin disappeared with Zabuza's body but not before shooting the blond boy a look of absolute _hatred._

Kakashi felt like catching his breath.

He spotted Naruto's eyes. They told him in certain terms that if he showed weakness Naruto _would_ go back to killing him.

Kakashi thought he could last for a bit longer.

Copy Cat Kakashi was _not_ losing to some brat of a demon host.

…..#################################################################...

"You utter _brats!"_ Kakashi hissed so venomously that even Naruto took a wary step back. "Why did you not mention you could heal from injuries like that?!"

His one eye pierced the three of them like paper. He had honestly thought Naruto had died then and that he had been responsible for the murder of an Academy student because _no one_ had taken the precaution to tell him that Naruto's healing bordered on nigh immortality.

"And _where_ is Tazuna?" He snapped patience on its last thread.

Sakura silently and nervously pointed up.

Kakashi sighed and pinched his nose. He did not want to think how his students had manhandled their client up a tree before Zabuza had caught up to them.

…##############################################################...

"No we're not genin." Sakura explained to Tsunami who looked frankly a little worried. "Consider us-"

"Fodder." Naruto interrupted calmly from where he was hunched over and pulling his fingers out of their joints. An unpleasant smile twisted his face. "We're the people who'll-"

"Work experience." Sasuke cut in hastily. "Ignore him."

The united duo glared at the blond boy who shrugged in a lazy rolling motion.

"Suit yourself." Naruto already sounded like he had lost interest and unusually his eyes were dull and almost lifeless.

"It must be nice to prefer the lies to the truth." A smirk flickered over his face before winking out. Tsunami looked troubled. "How privileged you must be to be able to afford that luxury." Naruto smiled at the woman who opened and closed her mouth perplexed.

Funny.

Sakura could actually hear the judgement in those words. Naruto was caustic and strange but she could agree he usually did not judge so fast. Even when he had been ripping their confidence to shreds he had sounded like he was stating a fact and not voicing an opinion.

Then his eyes raked across the room to land on her neck. Sakura resisted the urge to flick up her collar because that stare was unsettling. A trail of something wet dripped down the back of her neck.

The sigh Naruto released was more sad than irritated. The look on his face suggested he was disappointed by something she had done but for the love of her life she had no idea what. She hadn't done _anything._

"Don't worry about any food for me." The boy murmured rising from his perch. "I'll hunt my own." The grin he set Sasuke and Sakura was full of a defiant challenge mixed with a sadistic flash of teeth.

"Why don't I make the forest my castle and you can have this house. Now we can play properly without Kakashi interfering." His grin grew wider and the light in his eyes was cruel. Sakura and Sasuke went on alert immediately, Naruto had something up his sleeve and they didn't like it.

"It works out doesn't it?" Naruto asked agreeably. "We have a grey haired man to be grandmother; you're in red already Sakura, that's good you know your role already. And Sasuke." He pointed a sharp nail at Sasuke. "You know who we are right?"

With a final bone chilling grin the boy exited the house like a well-trained nobleman bowing politely to Tsunami in the process humming under his breath.

"Is he always that intense?" Tsunami asked eyes wide knife hovering over a section of finely chopped onions.

Tazuna slumped in his chair in poorly hidden relief.

Sakura took in a shaky breath. "It's a bit difficult to be kind when he refuses to play by the same rules."

Their strategy had depended on Naruto _not_ being riled up enough to actually take an interest to fight back. Now by separating the three of them Naruto had rendered that strategy useless.

….#############################################################...

Kakashi took the news one of the Academy Students under his protection had wandered off rather well in Sasuke's opinion.

"He'll be back." The white haired man spoke dismissively with a surety as hard as diamond.

Yes, that was what they were wary of. They did _not_ want to face Naruto at all, the boy would only get harder to shake off later.

At that minute a small boy crashed into the house making such a high pitched squealing that Sasuke half thought a pig had escaped.

"Ayakashi!" The boy shrieked, "There's Youkai out there! We're doomed!"

"Has anyone died in this house?!" Sasuke snarled at the resident family, eyes creasing into slits.

Tazuna shook his head dumbly as his grandson babbled about Youkai clutching his waist.

That was good at least, the boy couldn't turn the dead against them in the house but…that didn't mean he couldn't stir them up in the forest outside and cause them to rampage…

Behind him Sakura ran around fortifying the place until all the exits looked like spider webs of death. Ignoring the girl going way overboard he spotted Kakashi roll his eyes and delicately undo part of it so he could step outside. However he did put it back to the way it was.

"I feel like taking a walk." Kakashi spoke cheerily before wandering off himself into the darkness. "Try not to die brats or lose."

Kakashi was good enough to defend against Naruto Sasuke knew and so he just lightly glared at the Wave family urging Kakashi to stay inside. A Jonin did what he liked and did not answer to anyone but his superiors. In a way Kakashi was extremely, _extremely_ lenient in even letting them spend time with him seeing as he wasn't their Jonin sensei.

…#################################################################...

That night would never be spoken about again in Team 7 history.

By the end of the traumatic night Sasuke had found himself at the bottom of a pond, Sakura locked herself in a decrepit boat and Naruto got introduced in intimate detail to the business end of a rake.

They were lucky the house hadn't burned down.

Kakashi hadn't left them of course; he was the one to fish Sasuke out, trick Sakura into coming out and unpin Naruto from fifty feet up the tree. His eye glowed with good humour and his humming boded very bad consequences for the three of them in the morning.

Funny thing was Naruto hadn't used his powers _once_ (deliberately)the whole night. Kakashi ignored the repeated attempts to stab him the morning with good grace.

….####################################################################...

It was only in the morning that all of them were together and in silence for the first time since the mission started. Sakura felt like the only action her throat could do was swallow and robotically she repeated the same motions with the cardboard like food in her bowl.

Her neck hurt.

Sporadic pulses of pain shot through her neck as if the bones themselves were twisting out of place. They had stopped bleeding but the pain wouldn't go away; she grimaced feeling the sticky sweet sensation in her mouth that glued her lips together.

There was so much blood in her new life.

Everyone in her team was drenched in it, dripping a red so dark she was surprised they didn't drown.

Maybe…some of them had…

Her fingers tightened on the rim of her bowl.

Last night was hazing together in a fog of darkness and forests and she remembered it all through a dream like state. Had she really done all that?

Sakura smiled and plucked up the ball of rice with her chopsticks.

She knew Sasuke would always have a scar curving the line of his hip. She knew Naruto would always look the same as he always had. And they knew she would carry a burn mark on her left shoulder for life.

…###############################################################...

Sasuke stared at his bowl and tried to forget the feeling of iron sliding through flesh. The snap of the iron getting caught on the spine and the crunch of the bones haunted him a moment later.

It had been so easy.

He wondered what it felt like to feel your spinal cord snap. What it felt like to lose all feeling in a body that had obeyed your commands for years.

It must have been agony beyond compare for _Naruto_ to turn his mocking smile into a wide eyed gasp and kick him with so much force half his ribs broke and Sasuke landed in the lake almost drowning.

Neither of them had apologised.

He had been very sure that he had felt the blond boy's leg snap from that kick as well. Abruptly he dropped his face into his hands.

Just because Naruto couldn't die didn't mean it was right for Sasuke and Sakura to take advantage.

What if one day he just didn't jerk up and laugh it off?

Sasuke was no fool. He _had_ killed his team mate even if he hadn't died.

And that terrified him because Naruto was such a person that he lowered control in the people surrounding him. Remembering _that man's_ words Sasuke resisted the urge to laugh, here was a person he could perhaps call team mate one day and was perfect to kill to gain more power…but Sasuke himself refused.

What irony.

….######################################################...

Tsunami could only stare in mute terror as the blond haired boy walked out of her home.

Behind him he left two corpses.

As if the universe was laughing at her there was not a single drop of blood staining their skin or marring their grotesquely twisted faces. Some cynical part of her hysterical brain told her snidely that gentlemen did exist. Just in the wrong profession entirely to appreciate.

She clutched her son closer to her burying her face into her clothes.

"Ja ne Tsunami san." The boy had smiled beatifically at her. "How does it feel to come face to face with the world you've been ignoring? You are one frightened fish in a very big ocean." He had laughed. "Plenty of us are poisoned with mercury you know."

Politely the door had clicked shut after him.

After a few tense seconds she sagged in relief almost breaking down before remembering Inari was _there._

She hated the way he looked at people. As if he was capable of looking right through people and found a vicious amusement in it.

The silence raised all the hair on the back of her neck as her intuition started screaming.

"Inari." She whispered holding her son so she could see his face.

Her son's eyes were lazily shut and his head lolled forward as soon as she removed her support. Remembering the monster boy's hand running through Inari's hair before attacking she screamed half hysterically, her son's slumbering form clutched to her chest.

…..################################################################...

Zabuza was a wreck.

He was also a Jonin.

Kakashi sighed and eyed the stump of the Kiri Nin's hand and the proud arch of Momochi's back.

"Let me guess." Kakashi slid his headband up. "You want a rematch."

Zabuza's eyes were fevered and the shadows under his eyes were pronounced.

The white haired man could not dredge up the same feeling of trepidation as before and sighed.

"That brat took my sword arm." Zabuza held up his stump and laughed a strange hollow sound. The fierce flash that lit up his eyes was all cold fury though.

"He gave it back." Came a voice from behind Kakashi almost automatically and both Jonin turned to see Sakura clamp a hand over her mouth.

A cruel smile stretched Zabuza's mouth.

"I suppose he did."

Then there was steel and ice on the end of Zabuza's wrist and the Nin was charging with a roar incensed beyond all measure.

Kakashi ducked immediately spotting his students slide back watching the fight warily. Smart kids.

A wickedly sharp steel and ice blade extended from Zabuza's stump, reflecting the sun in a dazzling brilliance.

Yuki make.

Thank Kami he had left the person they were most likely to kill back at the house….even if it wouldn't have worked. He had standards.

There was a crash behind him as Sasuke and Sakura met the Yuki boy in battle. He fought the urge to sigh, this team really couldn't keep out of trouble.

"I bisected that brat." Zabuza was speaking calmly. "What kind of a freak is he?"

A hot curling brand hissed under his ribs. _What right_ did the man have to call Naruto that?

"Pathetic." Kakashi murmured voice hard and eye frosty.

"Your nickname doesn't quite measure up when facing the real thing." Kakashi saw the horror bloom deep in the other man's face. It was ugly and brutal like a heavy stone, it sunk into Zabuza's dark eyes and lodged there.

…#################################################################...

Sasuke would have murdered anyone at that point if only he could have Naruto's healing ability.

A dome of ice covered him and Sakura reflecting them in dizzying arrays of images. He couldn't stop his limbs shivering in the cold as he blocked another onset of senbon. One sunk into his arm sending a trail of blood down his elbow.

A helpless sort of anger lined the boy's face as he attacked them over and over. The same hard smouldering fire someone got after they realised the world wasn't fair and strength was often outweighed by luck.

He had seen the same eyes staring back in the mirror.

"You know our strategy for Naruto?" Sasuke asked Sakura quietly. "Reverse it."

Her face lit up in sadistic glee.

"So Momochi's life and reputation as a swordsman rests in your hands huh." Sakura laughed at the effeminate boy, Sasuke picked up his name was Haku earlier. "What an excellent job you've done so far!" She threw her head back laughing sounding _very_ amused.

Then she grew serious at the drop of a pin. "What obligated you to become a crutch? Leave him to die, did you ever think that helpless anguish and anger that you're feeling right now is what you leave behind every time he grows angry or bored? What makes you so special that you have to make it explicit? Have other people not suffered?"

Exposure to Naruto had made Sakura _cruel._

Sasuke smiled faintly as Haku fell further into the pit of hatred.

"You used my name on purpose." A voice whispered near his ear.

Naruto stepped out from _nowhere,_ spotted Haku's wide bugging eyes and the teeth peeking out of his mouth were _not_ human.

"You know the typical payment was three drops of blood." The boy's words were measured as his lips worked around those vicious teeth. A terrible smile.

"I'll waver that for you shall I?"

"Just get rid of the ice." Sasuke ordered coolly.

Black fur and red flesh overlaid Naruto's skin for an instant; the churning amusement in the blue eyes a chafing blister to Sasuke's paranoia.

What _was_ he?

What was he planning? Where was he looking? What were his hands doing? Watch. Watch. _Watch everything,_ the field, the boy, the sky, the sun.

Because there was a chance he wouldn't ever again. (Why was Naruto barefoot?)

Haku flew into a blind rage; shrieking and throwing ice in such great quantities at Naruto that the entire bridge behind the boy froze in one huge wave. Naruto merely sidestepped each furious swing inspecting the furious boy like a lab specimen. Sakura dove for Sasuke and knocked him out of range.

Naruto raised one finger and pointed it like a claw at Haku's face.

"There's ice on your face."

One disbelieving hand rose up and brushed away frozen droplets.

Sasuke made a disgusted sound. "How do you call yourself a tool? You're more like a melting crayon."

"You have ruined Zabuza sama's life!" Haku screeched slight insanity flickering deep in that loathing. The ice around them creaked once before shattering into bullet like projectiles at the team.

Sasuke's heart froze.

There were too many!

 _Naruto was barefoot._

The fact came back to him with an alarming clarity as the rusted iron under his feet groaned and gave way cutting deep gashes into his legs as he and Sakura fell screaming into the choppy freezing water below.

Sakura lashed out, sending a wired kunai to wrap around the jagged edge of the bridge so that instead of crashing into the water they swung.

Naruto was laughing above them.

High and joyous. Sakura's hand clenched around his fingers almost painfully. Sasuke gritted his teeth, latched onto a jagged edge, feeling the pain in his flesh distantly, before swinging Sakura up. Before she could cry out and join the fray, he held out a hand and captured the hand with the kunai.

Holding it to his mouth in the parody of a kiss he blew fire. Sakura's face grew tight and she nodded once.

Blisters formed from the proximity of the red hot metal but her grip was secure.

"You're not human." Haku whispered stepping back.

"Decay." Naruto spoke almost kindly. "You should be more careful."

An elegant hand reached out and touched a mirror of ice with the tip of the finger. It disintegrated immediately into gas and freezing wind swirling around the duo and whipping their hair.

Sasuke spat spit still hot enough to ignite the gases. He understood his role very well.

The bridge _exploded._

Thunderous fire, light and heat swirled around the duo, Sakura drawing back to protect herself. Water dripped from a hasty ice shield and the boy behind the defence looked furious. The fire cleared and Sasuke savoured the sight of an injured Naruto before the burns healed themselves.

Sakura attacked, kunai easily able to cut through the flimsy ice. Haku ducked and spun around her blows, she flipped over him and the boy spun to meet Sasuke's boot in his face. Unfortunately he weaved away at the last second with an astounding grace and disappeared in a flicker of speed.

The blond boy on the bridge stood hands in pockets, eyes narrowing and tightening in anticipation as Haku reappeared behind him in a heart bursting display of speed.

…..########################################################...

"Destroying the brain kills everything." Haku muttered viciously before driving his senbon straight through the delicate bone of Naruto's temple and sending a powerful wave of ice down the metal to split the bone open.

Naruto _screamed._

Kakashi felt panic clutch his heart. Was the Yuki right? Had Naruto ever recovered from brain injuries before? A part of him shrivelled up and died hearing that agonised shriek go on and on.

Haku had exactly half a second to look surprised before Naruto twisted his neck around one eighty degrees and sunk razor sharp teeth into his neck.

A foul seething chakra leaked from Naruto, his eyes were mad with rage and pain and he bit down further and ripped sideways to erupt the effeminate boy's throat in a rush of scarlet.

Kakashi's experienced eye told him immediately that the wound was too shallow.

Haku howled and gurgled in pain. Kakashi leapt back to avoid his arm being cut off as Zabuza lost himself even further into his fury.

"Now, now." The white haired man rumbled. "Leave the children to play." The smile stretching Kakashi's mask was reminiscent of his feared ANBU days and even Zabuza paused at the bloodthirsty gleam in that hard dark eye. He felt _alive_ in battle in a way no drug could ever simulate. To wager your life in a split second timing and skill was an addiction all Jonin struggled with.

Kakashi's eye blazed bloody.

The world span into view far sharper than expected, Kakashi's grin lengthened.

He could pick out individual snowflakes forming on the impressive ice blade. He could see each drop of sweat rolling down his opponent's face. _There._

He struck as the foul chakra reached a crescendo.

…..#########################################################...

Sakura stared at Naruto growling deep and savagely at the screaming effeminate boy and wondered if she should be more concerned. After having her own throat ripped out she couldn't really dredge up any sympathy for Haku.

The seething blistering chakra in the air did bother her though. It was foul and felt like liquid shit and trash to her keen senses. Was that death chakra? Was that the chakra of the dead? Her blisters on her palm burned when the chakra brushed against it and it felt like it was eating into the very bones of her hand.

Blood on ice really was beautiful.

The ice mirrors above them cracked with a noise like thunder. Sakura's head shot up-

And shattered with a thousand rainbows from the rising sun. At the same time ice lashed from Haku's frame attacking anything and everything within range as the hysterical boy lost control.

Death was so _ugly._

A simple substitution got her at the highest point of the dome and falling rapidly. She landed catlike next to Sasuke who had opted to dodge all of the deadly particles. He blinked at her and she half thought he had been blinded what with the red eyes staring back at her. Ice littered the bridge in great clumps and sank into the steel with ease.

"You're such a pest." Naruto allowed shaking ice from his clothes. Sakura agreed but would possibly make the sentiment a bit stronger. She smirked.

"Oh look." She purred. "Your master's sword is no more."

A horrified Haku turned a shaky head towards Zabuza only to find the magnificent ice blade in pieces at the man's feet and Kakashi's hand in his master's chest. Quick gasps and shudders shook his frame as he refused to take in the scene.

"Unable to take out three academy students, how pathetic." Sasuke murmured walking around the area in an arc, boots crunching on the ice and steel. "Doesn't bode well on your partner's skill level or intelligence either does it?"

"Zabuza-sama." Haku whispered sounding utterly broken. His fingers reached up to claw at his cheeks almost subconsciously.

Kakashi pulled his hand out with a squelch, shook off the blood and the look on his visible face was enough to send Sakura's heart thumping. It was the look of an apex predator.

Spotting Sakura staring the white haired Jonin seemed to come to his senses and sent her a gentle smile. It didn't quite work with a corpse at his feet and blood coating up to his elbow.

Sakura smiled back. They had all known Kakashi was strong, but seeing it in action was exhilarating.

Naruto stalked over to Haku with a purpose, the foul chakra folding and retracting from most of his body to concentrate around his hand. A dark reddy black mist formed around his left hand with wicked claws and powerful bunched muscles.

In contrast to the fury in his eyes Naruto's face was almost serene. He rested the very tips of the claws against Haku's battle kimono above the heart so that the fabric singed slightly.

Haku followed the motion with quick short breaths. Fear of the unknown clouded his eyes and no doubt Naruto was working his genjutsu trick on the already unstable boy.

This wasn't a fight. This had become an execution.

….#########################################################...

Sakura spat bile over the edge of the bridge and even Sasuke turned away looking green.

Kakashi forced himself not to react. He had been warned.

He had been warned.

But _nothing_ could have prepared him for the sight of Naruto nesting in the cavity of Haku's torso playing with his innards.

Sasuke joined Sakura in vomiting when Naruto tilted his head at a brilliantly red piece of flesh and swallowed it.

Cannibalism.

Oh what had _he_ become…?

Kakashi had seen _many_ atrocities in his time; but seeing his own student eat the flesh of a fellow human being was by far the most sickening.

He ripped the blond boy away from his meal ignoring the sharp cry of protest. The noise abruptly died off as he raised the boy a good few feet off the ground and Naruto got a good look at the absolute _fury_ written in the section of the face he could see.

"Unless you give me a very good explanation _now_ student." He bit out. "I will strip you of your rank here and now and forbid you from ever entering the shinobi ranks or leaving a prison cell ever again."

Naruto snarled in his face, the stench of rotting flesh hitting Kakashi in his sensitive nose. Naruto looked quite mad with widened pupils and face lined in a terrific snarl.

Kakashi stared him down eye bleeding red.

To his hidden horror at the sight of his Sharingan Naruto's eyes slowly turned the slightest shade of amber.

Like sunlight on seawater.

Naruto shook his head hard as if ridding himself of water.

"Because there is a price." Naruto rasped as if there was glass in his throat. "And I would choose him over you to settle that debt." He was breathing heavily and painfully suspended off the ground like that. "There is a blood price to settle. _It_ demands it."

Kakashi dropped Naruto, the latter hitting the bridge with a clear dislocated shoulder.

Then the boy spoke again far more normally. "Would you believe when I plucked his heart out it froze in my hand?" He pointed at a beautiful piece of crystal glittering by Haku's corpse then clawed at his chest. "Do you think if I claw mine out something will happen?"

Kakashi remembered the hawk like vision that had overcome him in his fight and looked sharply at Naruto. That was about the same time Naruto had unleashed the Kyuubi…what kind of effect did it have on Kekkei Genkei?

 _Sasuke had awoken his Sharingan bathed under the Kyuubi's foul chakra._

Very alarmed Kakashi left Naruto alone and gripped Sasuke's face in his hands as he studied the still red eyes.

"You're disgusting." Sakura told Naruto faintly wiping at her mouth. "Absolutely _sick…_ How _could you-_ "

Her look of disgust only made Naruto smile a little morosely.

"You left the show too early, you missed the best part…You'll enjoy this." Naruto tossed the crystalline heart to Sakura who caught it wide eyed. It was a beautiful structure of white and blue diamond like ice and it glimmered in her hand until it was painful to look at directly. "You like pretty things right?" Naruto's voice was quiet. "Maybe next time I'll walk you through something that really will take your heart away."

Sakura opened and closed her mouth not sure how to respond to the priceless gift or to the apparent threat. In the end she chose to back away warily fear and disgust fighting a war in her green eyes.

Sasuke's eyes were not the true version of the Sharingan.

He could tell the boy knew it too with the resigned look Sasuke shot him.

They were too murky, far too dark like congealing blood instead of arterial blood. The black tomoe and the red seemed to bleed into each other instead of being clearly defined and worst of all Sasuke didn't seem to be able to turn it off making it a constant drain on his chakra.

Naruto had given two gifts that day both of them poisonous and soaked in blood.

 **Leave a review on the way out? Dark enough?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I got a chapter of this done as well! I have so much work to catch up on its unreal and here I am plotting ways to freak you guys out. Oh well, its fun.**

The Hokage stepped into the dark of his office feeling the stench of alcohol hit his nose with the subtlety of a battering ram.

The white of a boy's eyes gleamed from the light escaping past the door.

Dark glass littered the floor and desk, bottles upon bottles, such a number even Tsunade would have been leery going near.

A chill ran down the man's back as the boy shifted and the blue eyes hit the light. Against all reason they _gleamed_ with an intelligence that was almost alien.

"You found my stash." The Hokage stepped in the room and shut the door noticing how the boy's face twisted in pain in the light. Now the only light was the thin sliver of pale light from the moon.

"Heh." Naruto allowed sounding perfectly in control of his actions. A hiccup cast doubt on that statement. "I figured you owed me so I helped myself."

He tipped another bottle down, his throat bobbing as he drank greedily.

"What happened?" The Hokage asked quietly scraping a chair around the side of the desk. Naruto _never_ willingly approached him so he would seize this opportunity with both hands.

Naruto laughed and clutched the bottle by the neck harder. It was bitter and the Hokage smiled because even if Naruto hated him with a passion the boy had never hidden what he felt from him.

The dark was seething in the room. Like a blister that threatened to erupt and the boy opened his mouth.

"It's so _disgusting._ "

Naruto sounded almost awed, like he had found something out that had amazed and shook him in equal measure.

"What is?" The Hokage asked quietly letting the boy have his space and time to answer.

Blue eyes swung to meet his.

"Other people dying."

Then Naruto was talking fast and fumbling sounding far more like a normal child than he had in months.

"They're _so_ wet you know. I didn't know what they would recover from so I kept going and it was _so wet._ I thought if he couldn't recognise himself his soul couldn't come back and then-" Naruto tipped the bottle down his throat, alcohol spilling over his lips as he swallowed cutting off his rambling stream.

"I didn't even see one instance he came back." The boy spoke wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The stench of alcohol was almost overpowering now. Slowly Naruto's awe corrupted into contempt.

Hiruzen reached out and pried the alcohol from Naruto. The boy's eyes flashed but his grip slackened reluctantly.

"I heard a very disturbing story from Kakashi." The man spoke evenly. "About what you did."

The glare sent at him was dizzying with the weight of the alcohol and rage.

Hiruzen understood then.

Naruto had been far more unnerved than Kakashi had.

"You don't understand." The boy whispered fury trembling every syllable in his words. "I was a fool to think you might."

"You were scared-" The Hokage tried sensing that Naruto was slipping away.

Alcohol spilled everywhere as Naruto smashed the bottle to smithereens against the desk in a _smash._

"He _died_ on me!" Naruto snarled. " _What_ an insult!"

Insult?

"I didn't win." Naruto sneered voice ugly. "He went and mocked me by doing the one thing I couldn't!" He hurled a tray of sake bottles and they smashed on the floor with an ear wrenching crash. Alcohol seeped into the bottom of the Hokage's robes and he knelt down to taste a drop.

The drop sent sparks flying down his tongue and fuzzed in his brain.

Hiruzen reeled. How strong was the alcohol?

"I _lost_ resoundly."

Naruto started to laugh. Hiruzen could hear the appreciation and the hatred warring in that laugh. Could hear the slightest hint of the sanity stripping away to reveal the madness and the broken parts in the boy.

"Bastard." Naruto shrugged and grinned in a fierce flash of fang. "I really am a freak huh."

….###################################################################...

Sasuke bowed slightly to a pale eyed Hyuuga. The drain on his eyes really was making him dizzy now and so he had to navigate with the barest slits of vision possible. The arrogant looking boy had passed the year before and Sasuke recognised him as one of the more skilled Hyuuga members. There was no way he was going to the main branch with this, he had no wish to owe the politically active part of the Hyuuga a favour.

"What does an Academy student want with me?" Neji Hyuuga asked, voice cracking slightly under puberty. Despite that it was confident and Sasuke could hear the bitter undertones.

The girl with her hair in buns next to him peered at Sasuke curiously over two chopsticks.

"If you wanted Gai sensei he's running with Lee." She offered.

"No." Sasuke opened his eyes fully, fighting his heavy eyelids. "I wanted to ask you a favour actually."

A spark of interest was hidden in those pale pools the Hyuuga called eyes.

"This is the first time I am seeing the legendary Sharingan." He murmured. "I wonder if the tales about its wielder's prowess is true."

Sasuke copied Naruto's blank smile. "That won't be an issue. I want you to block all the chakra to my eyes."

The Hyuuga nearly knocked his bowl of food to the ground in pure shock.

"What!" He snapped. "You want me to commit that atrocity?!"

The Hyuugas had a very advanced dojutsu Sasuke reasoned grimly. To them cutting chakra to the eye effectively cut off one of their senses and was the same as crippling them until the wielder's chakra overcame the block. But if he could imitate what the Hyuuga's did to block the pathways internally then he could forcibly turn his Sharingan on and off instead of having it stuck always active.

"You heard me." Sasuke replied mildly. "You get a chance to trump your rival dojutsu, what's the problem?"

"I am not crippling a child." Neji hissed venomously knuckles tight on the rim of his bowl. "How dare you to judge me to be that kind of person."

Sasuke tapped his temple feeling the first signs of chakra exhaustion weighing down his limbs.

"If you do not I will die in a day." He snapped and the girl's mouth snapped shut.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "Explain." He ordered imperially.

"There was a problem with the activation." Sasuke's fingers curled in front of his nearly shut eyes. "I can't switch it off. You know _exactly_ what that means."

"Neji." The girl's voice was sharp.

Neji stared at him for a few long seconds the weight of his gaze dragging across the Academy Student's face. Sasuke breathed out a sigh of relief when he nodded once sharply.

"That sounds like an interesting story." The Hyuuga murmured as he pulled out a seat next to him and motioned for Sasuke to sit.

Cool long fingers pressed against the side of his face and Neji's Byakugan bulged into life. Sasuke admired the rainbow like sheen and privately commented that the Byakugan was more beautiful to look at then his own Sharingan.

Privately.

There was excess saliva in Sasuke's mouth. Neji was going to mess with his internal chakra system. Kami that was a terrifying thought.

"Stay still." Neji muttered removing one hand slowly and hovering over Sasuke's flickering eye. The boy was incredibly close and Sasuke knew he was looking straight through him.

"Your optical chakra paths have been burned open." Neji murmured almost resting the tip of his finger against Sasuke's eyeball. "I've never seen anything like it before, it's decaying and healing at an incredible rate."

 _Naruto._

Sasuke sighed minutely. "Can you temporarily block it?"

"Of course." A finger rested against his eyeball and there was a weird shock through his eyeball and back of his eye like a ferocious itch. His eye felt cool and dry and he blinked rapidly the stress of the chakra drain fading. Neji repeated the process to the other eye and pulled back satisfied.

Sasuke took in the world with non Sharingan eyes with relief. All he had to do now was replicate that trick. But first…

"A long time ago." He started. "I heard a rumour about the Hyuuga branch house."

Neji quirked an eyebrow at him. "Indeed?"

"Caged birds are pitiful." Sasuke swivelled his head this way and that to get used to the vision and before Neji turned caustic he continued. "I know a person who maybe can unlock that cage."

He slid out of his seat and bowed to a frozen Neji. "As thanks. Come find me if you decide to take me up."

…..##################################################################...

Sakura traced the beautiful patterns in the icy heart. It cast a cold light on her face and palms as she turned in this way and that admiring its sheen.

"Forehead! Is that a diamond!?" Came a very loud and shocked voice.

"No." Sakura smiled thinly and held it up. "Seems like I win Ino. I managed to get my hands on a boy's heart first."

The blonde Yamanaka gaped unattractively at the frozen heart before going pale.

"You mean…"

Shikamaru and Choji came up after their energetic team mate (Oh yes Sakura remembered, they had passed their test hadn't they?) along with a dark haired and bearded man.

"Where did you get a frozen heart!?" Ino shrieked leaning in closer. All the males raised an eyebrow.

"It was a present." Sakura replied pleasantly waving to her ex classmates.

"Ah you're Kakashi's student aren't you?" The man asked puffing on a cigarette. His eyes were full of humour and they gleamed with a sharp intelligence. "I'm Asuma."

Sakura shook her head letting Ino have a closer look. "You're mistaken sir. We failed our test, we Academy Students."

Something danced in Asuma's eyes like he was laughing at her but he gravely inclined his head.

"I hate to bring this up." Shikamaru perked a finger up. "But if they've started to give away frozen hearts at the Academy can I go back? I can make some very nice shogi pieces out of those."

Sakura thought about everything they went through to obtain that heart and laughed out loud.

"Sorry Shikamaru. But there won't be any more ice hearts."

Haku had been the last of his line. She traced the ridge of the frozen flesh fondly.

"And trust me." Her voice grew slightly darker. "You don't want this one."

…..#########################################################################...

Kakashi got cornered by three Jonin and a Hokage.

The scene would have provoked alarms in all the shinobi present except it was those shinobi in particular.

Kakashi snapped his book shut. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Exactly what is going on with your team?" Asuma asked pleasantly leaning against the wall. He took a drag of his cigarette. "Your kunoichi doesn't even know she's a genin and somehow got her hands on a frozen human heart."

"Your youthful genin asked Neji to cripple his kekkei genkei." Gai frowned, eyebrows drawing together into one thick line. "The damage to them was something he had never seen before."

The Hokage cleared his throat. "I found Naruto emptying my sake stash."

All the Jonin choked. Kakashi came to his senses far quicker, he had been right. He had a headache from dealing with this team.

Kurenai tossed her hair behind her shoulder. Several chunin's eyes followed that movement.

"Heads up Kakashi." She warned. "One of mine has a crush on yours."

"I don't keep a track of how many people have a crush on Sasuke." Kakashi answered flatly.

"The _other_ boy." Kurenai's eyes were dark and flat.

Kakashi stared darkly amused. "She's braver than all of her class and most of the chunin combined. Bring her over sometime. If it is a girl."

Kurenai hissed at him and stalked off. Asuma cleared his throat.

"They don't know about them being genin because I want to see if they can become chunin without realising." Kakashi grinned under his mask. "I get bored gentlemen. As for the rest…the C rank went a little wrong. Good day and thanks for telling me."

The Hokage kneaded the bridge of his nose. "He's as mad as the rest of them." He stated wearily. "I warn you two now, if you intend to enter your teams in the Chunin exams keep in mind that Team 7 _will_ be in them and think it is their only chance to be genin. I have no doubt Kakashi will make them fail on purpose, he's that kind of man. Team 7 is dangerous in a way your teams are not."

Gai stared after Kakashi's retreating back. "How so?"

"The will to murder." Hiruzen answered and the words sank like a stone into the atmosphere. "Each of them have killed and tortured. If you do not prepare your teams Team 7 will eat them alive."

…##########################################################...

"I want answers."

Sasuke heard Sakura demand from where he was experimenting with his eyes. Tilting his head he cracked an eye open in time to see Naruto raise an eyebrow.

"Ask away." The boy murmured. "Whether I answer is an entirely different thing."

After the disastrous events on the bridge a shaky truce had been called by both sides and Sasuke was hoping Naruto wouldn't feel the need to apologise like last time. He hadn't set one foot inside his compound since that moment and dreaded to think of the condition his home was going to be in.

Sakura took a breath.

"Were the Uzumakis wiped out because of your kekkei genkeis?"

Sasuke paused.

Naruto's eyes actually opened wide.

"Imagine a civilisation with blood in their hair." He spoke softly. "Imagine an island where the people reached up instead of out. Where they learnt to seal _gods_ into slips of paper and shells. They were conquerors in their own way and can you imagine the terror the mainland must have felt when they turned their eyes beyond their whirlpools?" Naruto smiled thinly. "Death and the Uzumakis have forever been entwined."

"How did they die?" Sasuke asked reeling that he and Naruto had something in common.

"Hell if I know." Naruto inspected his nails. "But the Uzumaki's didn't die."

There was something ominous rising in Sasuke's chest. What did Naruto mean by that? Everything he said just contradicted each other.

" _Vengeance._ " Naruto hissed and the sunlight through the red leaves tinted his hair the faintest shade of scarlet. " _Vindication._ Their will lives on. The will of the whirlpool."

His hand lifted but Naruto didn't seem aware of it and traced a very light spiral on his stomach.

 _Dread_ slammed into Sasuke's stomach. His imagination drew a very chilling picture of Naruto's ancestors for him.

Blood haired conquerors with blood on their hands, mouths with death dogging their footsteps. Those mad people had turned around and led death itself on a merry spiral, soared in their glory, shone with a brilliance so blinding that when death caught upand at the eye of the storm they, their island, their whole civilisation had sunk back into the whirlpools they had honoured and mocked the god with.

He remembered what Naruto had said on the bridge. The God of death had drawn a seal on the boy. As of the minute he had been born, _his life_ was the eye of the storm. The last storm the Uzumakis would ever make. Maybe it was the same storm that had doomed them winding tighter and tighter until it coalesced around one boy.

He shivered and thought that he would not ever want to meet the blood haired woman or man that sired his team mate.

….##########################################################...

So when Sasuke came face to face with a boy with blood in his hair and the same heavy presence as Naruto inside an alarm shattered with the force it went off.

"Oh look at you." Naruto breathed genuine awe tainting his voice as he stepped forward. "You are magnificent little brother."

Sakura went so pale Sasuke thought she was going to faint. Dear Kami no. One Naruto Uzumaki was enough.

"Do I know you?" The answer was sharp and the unease simmering in their stomachs turned to confusion.

The girl with the sandy hair and the boy with the face paint glared at Naruto but didn't resist their brother's commands in a single way.

"In another life perhaps." Naruto muttered. "In the next one maybe. But we are brothers in this one."

The foreign boy's eyes narrowed then he smiled. A thin dagger of a smile that complimented his eyes perfectly.

"My maternal brother." The words themselves sounded dangerous. "You _reek_ of death. It's filthy."

Naruto's smile didn't change but something sharpened in his posture. "Maybe your blood can wash away the filth."

Sasuke _did not_ like the green fire erupting in the red haired's eyes. A gritty texture rasped against his cheek and the taste in his mouth confirmed it as sand.

The two monsters stepped forward and the red haired boy hissed.

"You may be ready to die, that doesn't mean I can't make you afraid."

And for the first time in a while Sasuke saw someone else's death play out in his own eyes. For it wasn't Naruto who died this time. The strange feral red head was the one clutching and screaming at his face and eyes as vicious lacerations opened up all over him spilling blood, guts, slippery flesh hacked into pieces; so much _blood_ until it matched his hair, turned the pavements into a red mirror, it was almost unreal with the crack of white bone and the wet snap of tendons under pressure.

Sasuke forced himself to see.

This is what Naruto dealt with on a daily basis. If they were to ever get stronger, they had to play on the same stage.

"What was that?" The red head breathed perfectly unharmed. His team meanwhile stared at the monsters in horror, disbelief and disgust warring in the lines of their mouth.

"Terror." Naruto bared his teeth, a vicious excitement turning his eyes wild and fierce. They weren't wolf teeth quite yet but Sasuke saw them all the same. He extended his hand.

Sand _crushed_ it.

Such was the power of Naruto's illusions that it Sasuke a second to realise that this was real.

The hand was a mangled mess like twisted, mangled metal with bone and flesh sickeningly straightening out with sick cracks and sliding of wet flesh over wet flesh. Naruto wiggled his fingers at the red head who was staring in absolute fascination.

"I will take pleasure in tearing you apart brother." The strange foreign monster said at last and Sasuke, surprising himself, felt his protective instinct rise. Naruto was theirs, _they_ would be the ones to eradicate him. Or stop him, which Sasuke was beginning to think meant the same thing.

The two of them had been exposed to Naruto so much that this was their normality now. He could rip a limb off and all Sakura would do was blink, Naruto could shatter his skull and carry on laughing high, wild and free and all Sasuke would do was to check if his clothes had got dirty. The duo with the red head had no such advantage.

They went white, then green then red then to a gray so sickly they looked like corpses.

That was probably the normal thing to do in this situation. Run away screaming because they stood with _monsters._ Sasuke had been poisoned from the inside out, his mind had warped until _this_ was his reality and he stood in the spreading puddle of his team mate's blood without a flinch.

"Pathetic." He said softly.

And it would be a miracle if people figured out what or who he was talking about.

….##############################################################...

Sakura hit the door until it was yanked open with an irritated jerk. Naruto upon seeing her smiled lazily, a stretch of his lip so languid and pleased that she could have replaced him with a grinning cat and there would have been no difference.

"Sakura." He said and stepped away so that she could come in. She felt like she was prodding a sleeping hornet's nest with a smoking stick.

The line of the threshold that was Naruto's territory was the thin line of the doorway. Behind that was fear, terror and death lurking in the human form of their team mate. Sakura stepped over boldly, feeling rash courage lick at her insides with something like acid.

"Are you human?" She asked, throwing caution to the skies. She had killed him once, he had sunk his teeth into her throat and that was enough. They had probably been more intimate with each other than she would ever be with anyone else.

Naruto smiled at her.

"Human? What a boring idea. Are you human Sakura? Have you held on to your humanity?"

The calm, eloquent answer shocked her to the bone. She had been expecting a threat, or malicious hisses or anything that would send a chill down her back and unnerve her.

"Yes." She replied immediately.

"Well then." Naruto replied, setting two dusty cups on the kitchen table. "I'll drink to your innocence."

What was going on? Naruto was _not_ this calm individual. Where was the intensity? Where was the fire? The malicious comments?

"Humanity is not another word for innocence." Sakura said sharply. "Innocence is childlike, humanity is something that stops us from becoming monsters."

There was a hand in her hair as Naruto idly patted her on the head. She stiffened, not having seen him move. And when had he poured the tea? Her neck crawled when she noticed the steaming cup in her hand.

"Humans. Monsters." Naruto said slowly, taking a sip of his tea. "Where does the line blur really? What happens to the human in the monster or the monster in the human? You're going to end up a murderer, you know that Sakura? You'll be a monster to a wife, son, and a grieving family. But you'll be human to you because it's your opinion that matters right?"

Sakura's jaw moved but nothing came out. He covered his mouth for a cough and motioned for her to drink the tea and reluctantly she raised it to her lips. It was sweet and she grimaced. Then she saw the gleam in the blue eyes and realised: Naruto was doing this on purpose. He knew she thought of him as an instinct driven terror and so he was making an effort to be the opposite.

"Monster is such a subjective term." Naruto said delicately, each word being formed with the perfect combination of malice and kindness. "And if you grow past such foolish labels like humanity and monsters, you'll see that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you call yourself because people _will_ hate you. Some will love you and one day you will be dead. What a waste to spend this time thinking about monsters and morality when in the end, everyone will be dead and then really…who cares if you were good or innocent or monstrous when you were living? You all leave the same grave behind."

He stopped to cough wetly into his cup. Her lips were dry despite the tea. That was wrong. _This_ was Naruto's world view? It didn't matter to him if he left daisies or roses growing when he was buried so it didn't matter what people thought of him now? What a depressing view; it made her feel cold and empty inside because on some level he was correct but on others he was _so wrong_ but she couldn't find which ones.

"So come on human." Naruto spoke 'human' like one would say 'girl' or 'Sakura' or 'child'. "Judge me." His blue eyes danced in mirth and a weariness so vast it stumped Sakura. His lips seemed unusually red and stark.

"I don't want to." She said truthfully.

Naruto viewed her thoughtfully, silence stretching out between them. She had had no idea he could be this eloquent or this frightening. This fear was an entirely different kind, this wasn't the primal disgust of the unknown but the creeping terror that if given enough time Naruto would enter her mind, reshape it to his standards then exit as silently as he had come.

"Give them something to talk about Haruno Sakura." He said softly in the end. And this time he said her name as if he meant to say her name and not any other word. "Give me something to remember little mayfly."

She was having tea with a quasi-immortal. She giggled at the absurdity and drunk more of her tea.

"Why did you choose me for-" She waved at her neck, feeling semi comfortable with the idea of talking normally to Naruto. Kami knew why as he was only highlighting the differences between them but the more he talked, the more she was comfortable with him. He had a brain, he had opinions even if they were warped as hell. It was just his body that was fucked up and she supposed she knew the pains of having a body that wasn't like what she wanted it to be.

"Hold on." She frowned having noticed something. "You drink tea?"

Naruto laughed and it reminded her of when they had met.

"This isn't tea." He said simply and politely covered his cough with his fist. Something red splashed onto his fist and he wiped it away still smiling faintly.

"Oh." Sakura said. "Do I need to worry about razors in your biscuits?"

Naruto's smile was partly genuine.

But Sakura did notice that he didn't answer and just sipped whatever he was drinking that turned his mouth into a bloody mess.

…..#################################################################...

It didn't last.

The light of terrifying, eloquent intelligence was gone from Naruto's eyes the next time Sakura saw him. It was replaced by something far more sinister; pity.

"Stop." She grabbed at Sasuke's sleeve who indulged her and slowed down. "Look."

There was the faintest crack of light from a rundown house. Rain flooded the streets and obstructed the view of the area, it was cold and wet and dark water pooled on the grounds and seeped away into the sewers like terrible warped mirrors.

There were potatoes and onions in the bag in her hand, Sasuke held the bread and tomatoes and neither of them could mistake their team mate's voice crooning above the high shrieking of the wind and the drumming of the rain on concrete.

They edged closer, the door was covered in thorns and the withered remains of roses. It might have been pretty once, the doorknob was missing and walls were patched up with pieces of thin fabric. She pushed it open and hissed as she discovered that the rose thorns weren't as dead as the rest of the plant.

The rain fell on her fingers but the blood didn't seem to dilute and wash away. Instead the blood seemed to be corrupting the rain instead so that dark crimson water rushed off her palm and turned the earth a muddy red shade. She shivered and put her hand in her pocket so that she didn't have to look at it.

Sasuke sucked in a breath.

Naruto sat in the centre of the room crooning a nursery rhyme under his breath. A corpse of a woman lay in the corner, skin pulled taut over her bones and filling the room with the stench of the wet dead. He pushed a cradle with his hand and to their horror there was a small lump in there too, still and not moving as they rocked from side to side.

Flowers were tucked into the room and spilled from the corners until all the fragrances mixed with the smell of the corpses and the rain and produced a foul scent.

"I can use as many flowers as I want." Naruto said out loud, almost wondrously, eyes meeting theirs like blue electric spears. "But dying is dying and rot is rot."

Sakura couldn't breathe. What had done this? Had Naruto done this?

"Come closer." Naruto's fingers stabbed the air. There was a ghost of a frown on his face.

"I don't want to." She said and he smiled.

"I don't care."

Her feet moved against her will and she knelt beside him. She had thought she had gotten used to all the horrifying things Naruto had a tendency for doing. This was _new._ And she had been _wrong._ Sasuke tried to stop her but Naruto sent him a look and he dropped his hand halfway.

The corpse in the cradle was awful to look at. It was puckered and brown and little more than a bag of bones. Bile rose in her throat as she noticed the apple flowers Naruto had put in its mouth and fists. Thunder boomed above them and she was scared.

"Sakura." Sasuke's voice was terribly even, "Get away from that."

Naruto laughed like he had made a great joke. "Get away? She should see this. Does miscarriage really make you that unhappy as to commit suicide?" he asked her, his tone made it clear he was aware of the cruelty of that question.

"Sakura."

She was frozen to her spot, mute with horror. Sasuke yanked her away and she was sure that something was moving under the dead baby's papery eyelids. His grip on her elbow was massively comforting and she hadn't been aware of how distant her mind had been with the macabre sight of Naruto cooing over a rotting child.

"We shouldn't be here." Sasuke breathed in her ear. "People have died here, there's no telling what he can do."

He turned around and startled so badly he let out the foulest word Sakura had ever heard him use. She shakenly turned her head and the mother's corpse had moved across the floor, hand outstretched, face upturned towards them in a horrified scream. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might burst, she let out a squeak and scuttled backwards. That wasn't possible.

 _That wasn't possible._

She was dead. She was dead.

Her grip on Sasuke was white knuckled and his grip on her was so tight she could feel her circulation being cut off.

"Don't worry." Naruto drawled from behind them. "That's the infamous maternal instinct." He was smirking, cold and cruel. "Even in death all she wants is her child."

The blond boy scooped up the child and Sakura fought the urge to vomit as he kissed it on the forehead in the dreadful parody of affection.

"A part of her died when her child was born on the table." Naruto said in the tune of the rhyme he had been singing. "Then she died in this miserable hut, heart broken and in despair. Too bad mother, you followed your child to Death and he's not the sort to let loved ones reunite."

He laughed and sang a verse of the nursery rhyme.

She was shaking all over. Sasuke's lips were _white._

There was a child crying in the hut. They couldn't tell where it came from and they looked around wildly, Naruto just rocked the babe in his arms.

"What a sweetheart." Naruto whispered turning to them. "Do you think she should live?"

"What?" Sasuke croaked.

Naruto made an impatient gesture. "The child. She's never even been on the wrong side of death before."

"Wrong side of death?" Sakura's voice was even fainter.

"Life, you fool." Naruto rolled his eyes. He smoothed what hair was left of the child's over her forehead. The crying intensified until the walls shook with the force of the broken sobs.

They looked down and nearly had a heart attack. The mother was even further forward now, her hand hanging limp at Naruto's feet looking like she had dragged herself forward by the strength in her fingers. He idly surveyed her like a king passing judgement on a peasant and stepped over her, still rocking the child.

"Naruto." Sakura managed, desperate to get out of there. "This is cruel, return the child to her and stop desecrating the dead."

"She does seem quite desperate to get her away from me no?" Naruto agreed, looking at the pitiful state of the sprawled mother. Something hot and cold at the same time crawled under Sakura's skin and slid down her spine.

He looked up. "One day you'll be rotting in the ground as well, hopefully you'll have better manners than this woman. She keeps screaming about demons and devils."

She felt sick. She did not want Naruto messing with her corpse, _her soul,_ when she was dead and from the lock jawed expression Sasuke was wearing, he felt the same.

"No I don't think she should live." Sasuke said. "Giving life to what should be dead, if you hadn't noticed, tends to be very unnatural."

"Stranger things have happened." Naruto's eyes were on fire, blue and icy, blazing through the thin skin of his face.

"You _are_ the stranger thing." Sasuke countered. "You should _stop_ happening."

"You want me to ignore the reason why a mother died?" Naruto mocked him, the curl of his grin nasty. "I'm in quite a bad mood tonight." The crying rose to deafening levels.

He looked at the child with a mildly irritated expression and calmly snapped its neck. The crying stopped and the implications horrified Sakura to the core.

"Look at you lot." Naruto muttered. "Dying everywhere. Leaving a mess of ripped apart souls behind. Pick a place and _die_ there."

Sasuke's mouth moved without sound. He looked at her. She looked at him. They had no other option.

"Naruto." She choked out. "As your…second disciple."

"As your first." Sasuke said very, _very_ grudgingly.

"Please stop this. Please."

He looked at them, surprise turning his face young and boyish until they could barely believe such an innocent looking boy was one of the most warped creatures they had ever met.

"You used my name." Naruto breathed.

Sakura was starting to think that this had been a very bad idea with the growing intensity in the boy's eyes. For a long minute, no one moved, afraid that they would shatter the weird sort of fragile understanding that had developed between them.

Very, very slowly Naruto inclined his head and without breaking eye contact he knelt and placed the child on the woman's chest and crossed her arms over the corpse.

The line of the woman's mouth could have been called a smile and she and Sasuke rushed out of there, welcoming the rain as an opposite to the unnatural dryness in the hut. It shouldn't have been that dry with the hut in such a bad condition but their lips had dried and chapped and bled when they were talking and they hadn't noticed.

Sakura tasted blood in her mouth and realised that this was it.

They had confirmed something, they didn't know what, but they were tied to Naruto now.

The taste of blood seemed strangely appropriate.

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